


Hide, Hide Yourself for Now-Book 2

by Chisza (Xlade)



Series: Hide, Hide Yourself For Now [2]
Category: Firefly, Pitch Black (2000), The Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Lord Marshal - Freeform, Necromongers, Riverick, cryo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-04-25 01:40:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4941739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xlade/pseuds/Chisza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HHYFN has been split into separate "Books". Please read in order, as they will make NO sense otherwise ;) THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL THE KUDOS AND COMMENTS SO FAR! I FEEL SO LOVED!</p><p>Riddick has no intention of remaining as Lord Marshal. In a hunt across the galaxy for a place to bury his dead and shake the last of the Necros, he stops to investigate a drifting ship of unknown origin and finds himself with a new kind of crazy on his hands. M for language, imagery, and probability of upcoming lemons. Eventual Riverick. Read and review and I shall love you!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ch. 18

 

I wonder if you'll look the same  
When you embrace me on that day  
Will you remember my name  
When I return home again?  
“From December” Project 86

He heard noises first. The deep rhythmic thrumming in his ear and the whir of fans somewhere had been a constant for a while. The slide of a hatch opening and footsteps were what pulled him out of the near cryo-like state he’d fallen into, but his head was too fogged to process much more than that. His nose caught metal, dust, and food. Leather, antiseptic and gun oil followed. His mistake then was to reach for River in his head, instead of trying to key into his surroundings. But although she was there, intact and rooted as firmly as ever, she wasn’t thinking anything. So when the hand touched his face and fingers pried open an eyelid, he let it happen. Couldn’t stop it really. He was a little amazed he was still breathing.  
And then light.  
Riddick roared and tried to cover his eyes. But his hands were chained and the cuffs bit into his wrists and drew blood as he tried to yank himself free. Instinct overruled mind and he lashed out with his feet, catching someone in the knees and toppling them. He grunted when they landed, badly, over his still thrashing body, and the man knew that if he could just get his legs free of the weight he could do some real damage to whoever had had the supreme idiocy of shining a fucking penlight directly in his eyes. He could feel his retinas burning, and the burst pattern was seared into his eyelids as he squeezed them shut and tried to figure out how many others were in the room. The animal was more concerned with the pain and where the fuck River was. People were shouting, someone was trying to help the one who’d fallen, and running feet were everywhere. He tried to crack his eyes open, hoping it would be dim enough to get his bearings, but someone had turned on a light and he only succeeded in making himself wish he’d never had eyes at all.  
And then she was there. Screeching through his mind. Screeching in his ears. Her voice was faint to the physical, but loud in the mental. He grunted again, and his hands tried to come down over his ears this time. He was just as unsuccessful, and fresh pain raced up his arms from his wrists as his body moved up to meet them instead of them coming down to guard him. He had a second to wonder if the links in the cuffs could be snapped and how much more his arms would get torn up as he tried to find out when the unmistakable feel of a gun barrel made itself known on his forehead.  
He stilled, eyes clenched shut and teeth bared in a snarl as he breathed and searched for information with his other senses. Gun oil, leather, faint incense, soap, anger, and confusion. Heartbeats in a small space told him there were at least four people, and the angry voices confirmed it. He tried to listen for River, but she’d stopped screeching and gone quiet even in his head. He couldn’t even see her there, and the animal and the man only knew that the bond hadn’t been broken. He could feel her though, thoughts racing; but she’d walled him out of her mind and he couldn’t tell what she was doing. The gun barrel hadn’t moved from his head, and the flat rage coming from its owner made it a little more important at the moment. Couldn’t find River if he was dead after all.  
“Now,” it was a man, the same one who’d met with Badger while he and River had eavesdropped a few days ago. The Captain. “If you’re done with the thrashing an’ try’n ta kick our Doc ta pieces, think you got some questions need to be answer’n.”  
Riddick snarled and yanked on his cuffs again. Fuck this guy. He had questions of his own. Like where was River? And where the fuck was he? The ratcheting click of a hammer being pulled back only served to piss him off even more. Did this man really think that would scare him?  
Neither got their answer. There was a yell of surprise from the door, a thud as a body landed, and a draft of apples and rain along with steel and cool water washed over him. He’d never smelled anything so good, and his animal rumbled a purr deep in his chest as the man grinned in slow anticipation. Too bad the lights were on; he couldn’t watch her work the way he was now. He set himself to track her by sound, and tipped his head back so he could better catch that smell. Interesting, how you could miss a thing when you hadn’t even been awake to know it was gone.  
Another body, shouting on the part of the Captain, something about a ‘Tross and what the hell was she doing. The question ended in a yelp as the gun clattered off somewhere, and then River was screeching again. Not in his head though, a thing he’d be forever grateful for. “No!” Another thud, more flying bits of weaponry. The rage of the others was mostly gone, replaced by confusion. “The stars are meant for darkness and night, not daylight and bright pain!” River again, and she slapped at something that sounded hard and made of metal before hitting something else much softer. A grunt of pain told him it was the Doc. “No saying the words,” she snarled.  
Riddick snorted. ::About time. Where you been girl?::  
And then she was there, crouching over him, hands fluttering over his pulse and then up his arms. Something small and thin was pressed into one hand before she stood again, and he could smell the steel rage boiling off of her and feel the heat of her body as she placed herself between her him and her crew. ::Locked in her bunk,:: she shot back, ::Now get those cuffs off before they try to turn the light back on::  
That was promising. He sent her a mental caress as he snapped his eyes open to see what was going on. Sure enough, she was standing over him, fists clenched and every line of her body speaking pain on the next person to cross her. The room was tiny, and the bodies of her crew spilled out of it into the one beyond, which was also dark. He figured it she must have turned off the lights there as well. Assorted groans and muttered curses met his ears as the others untangled themselves from each other and tried to stand. The Captain made it upright first, cursing in Chinese as he fixated on River. Riddick felt a growl building in his chest, and he worked a little faster with the hairpin River had given him to get the unfamiliar locks on the cuffs undone. A big man he vaguely remembered from the bar was next, and hard blue eyes over a fixed scowl turned on River as he pulled a giant Bowie knife from his belt. River slapped it from his hand before he had a chance to start forward with it, and he knew she was glaring at the man even as she blocked the Captain when he reached for her. “No!” The word rang in his ears, and he looked over to see the Doc bracing himself against the wall and reaching for a panel of buttons. “No light,” her voice was shrill, packed with more frustration than he’d ever heard from her. “You must listen! Bizuie! Shi mu ching er!”  
The four froze. Riddick was impressed despite himself. River gave him an amused mental poke before going back to ignoring him. He didn’t really care. He was out of one cuff, and it was making the second easier.  
“River,” said the Doc, in a slow careful voice meant to calm, hands steady as he reached for the panel again. “We need to see. There are no stars inside.” Rage boiled through Riddick, and River shrieked and flew forward, grabbing the man’s hands and yanking until she’d gotten her brother away from the wall.  
“No,” she yelled, and raised a fist. A quick glance showed the other three reaching as slowly as they could for their weapons. The dark skinned woman had already gotten hers, maybe when she was picking herself up off the floor, and was turning to cover him while the others kept their focus on the girl in their midst. Riddick snarled and glared at her just as a last wiggle of the hairpin loosened the cuff. She jerked in surprise and cursed in Chinese under her breath. The others didn’t notice. They were still trying to talk River down. He watched as the woman took one hand off her sawed off gun and reached for her Captain’s shoulder. The distance was too far to go from his position and the range too short for her to miss if he tried to take her. He couldn’t catch her personal scent with the mix of fear and rage in the room, but her heart rate was as steady as her breathing, having only jumped slightly when she caught sight of his eyes. A cool one, this woman.  
“Cap’n,” she murmured, taking the man by the shoulder and pulling gently. “You want to see this.”  
“What,” he snapped as he turned to face her. “Got us a little bit of crazy to deal with Zo.”  
In his head, Riddick heard the wordless snarl of River’s weapon self, and his animal matched it. The sound stayed in his chest, and he rumbled in anger as he pulled his legs under him in preparation for making the lunge that would close the distance between him and the Captain. Big gauge be damned, he could make it. The woman pulled the lever action on the gun and raised it a little higher. The noise got the attention of the rest of the people in the room. Riddick stilled and River let go of her brother to step in front of the gun. “No putting them out,” she hissed, and suddenly there was a blade in her hand. “You will all listen to the girl or she will start putting out their own stars. She did not want violence, but she will respond in kind if they do not back off!”  
Riddick snorted as quietly as he could, even as he rose into a crouch. ::Stars?::  
::Shut up!:: He knew that she was turning colors, and steel mixed with just a bit of burnt sugar rose in the air.  
He laughed, and that drew the attention back to him. The Doc lost his balance and landed up against the wall again. The other two men breathed out curses and stiffened. Surprise and fear rolled off of them in waves, and he curled a lip in satisfaction at the response. Finally, people with the sense to know what was dangerous. The woman with the sawed off hadn’t moved, although her eyes had flickered ever so slightly from him to River and back before remaining on him. He waited a moment, just to see if any of them were more trigger happy than safe, before rising from his crouch to his full height. The three with weapons tensed and aimed just a little straighter.  
The standoff was broken by a shrill cry somewhere deep in the ship. Three heads jerked around, and the dark skinned woman sighed and rolled her eyes. The cry came again, closer, and he could hear words in it. “Riiiiiiiiiiveeeeeer!”  
Someone ran into the room just outside the bolt hole they were all stuck in, tripped over what sounded like a chair, and kept going. High and shrill, Riddick winced when the child called River’s name again as she plowed into the back of the Doc and started trying to wiggle through the bodies. Taking advantage of the distraction which had claimed even the first mate now, he closed his telltale eyes and moved up behind River until he could feel the heat from her body radiating into his skin. ::Stars?::  
::Guides in the night sky,:: she told him shortly. Her attention was on the child and the guns the crew were still holding. The girl appeared in his mind and latched on to the animal where it stood in front of the tree. It paused its vigilance long enough to rub its jaw against her leg before going back to watching the potential enemies before them.  
He took a careful breath of the air around her to try and get a read on the feelings she was hiding from his mind. Steel overpowering lemons, apples and rain, cool water, and- ::Blood,:: he asked, surprised. She wasn’t giving any indications of pain, and it wasn’t a fresh smell. Old. A few days actually. Had her feet gotten hurt again?  
The group by the door had managed to collar the child as she tried to force her way into the room, and the gun hand was holding her up to face height with one hand fisted in the back of her vest as the Captain turned different colors of what Riddick guessed was purple. The little girl was yelling at him in a mix of Chinese and Common, ignoring the Doc as he tried to reason with her. “What are the rules on this boat,” the dark woman snapped finally, not taking her eyes from River. “Sierra, what are the rules?”  
“No one else follows them!”  
“And they have the bullet holes and scars to show for it!” That was the doctor, a prissier man Riddick had never seen, and the reply surprised him into a chuckle. River laid a careful hand on his leg behind her back as the group paused to glare at him. A fresh squawk from the kid drew their attention again, and Riddick took advantage of their distraction to poke at River’s mind. Something wasn’t quite right there. She was uncomfortable, nervous even. He took another breath and got his answer. He nearly laughed again, but sudden stiffening of her body and the rush of burnt sugar and steel killed the sound in his throat. ::Menstrual blood,:: he said, and let his mind do the laughing for him.  
She snarled in his mind, just as a new voice called out from the other room. “Cap’n?” It was a woman, hesitant and shaky. “Cap’n, you got Sierra? She took off on me.” A thud and a scuffling noise as the unknown crew member tried to navigate the room. “Why are the lights out? Is River ok? That big man loose?”  
Riddick snorted to himself. Must be the mechanic. The only one besides the fancy lady who hadn’t poked her nose in yet.  
“Keep ‘m out Kaylee,” the Captain yelled, “We got Sierra.” He turned to the little girl again and shook a finger in her face. “Now, you go with Kaylee. Listen to her or so help me...”  
The girl stuck her tongue out at him, tried to swat at the arm holding her up, and was caught by her mother. The woman kept her gun trained on the two in front of her as she snarled, “The common room better shine when we get down there again. And then you will go pick up all the toys I know you left all over the spare passenger dorm. Dong ma?”  
The girl was lowered back to the deck, and she muttered “Kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn.”  
The gun hand caught her a firm smack over the head for that, “Hey now, none o’ that till you’re big enough to back it up. Now scat, or your tyrant momma’s gonna land you with even more chores.” Riddick swallowed another chuckle and River sighed in front of him.  
He couldn’t help it any more. He threw his head back laughed. He heard the heart of the mechanic stutter momentarily at the sound before she gathered up her charge and hustled her away from the rest. The Captain shot him a look before calling “And go check on ‘Nara. Think she’s in River’s bunk,” over his shoulder at the pair. Running feet were his answer, and Riddick just shook his head and laughed a little harder as one of River’s bare heels tried to grind its way through his boot  
::Hwoon dahn will care very much in a moment,:: She shot at him in answer to the thoughts about her crew that the animal had been pushing her way, giving his foot one last stomp as the crew put their serious faces back on. ::It is worse than just no sex for another few days.::  
That shut him up pretty effectively, and he could feel her pull just a bit more of her focus from his mind and aim it towards her crew, while the figure of the girl climbed his tree and latched onto the animal. “See,” she said, as she reached a hand back towards him. “She is not broken! Will never be completely sane, but she. Is. Not. Broken!”  
The sentence ended in a shout and she stood there, fists clenched at her sides, radiating fear, anger and ozone. Her breath was coming in fast pants and her heart raced. He could imagine the look on her face, and matched its desperation to the new scent. This was it. The crux, the turning point. This was where they’d all have to make their choices. Her crew to listen and accept her as what she was; or him to start making good on his promise to cut down everyone who stood between him, his match, and freedom. He traced a finger up her spine where they couldn’t see and felt muscles relax slightly under his hands as some of the citrus scent of terror faded from her. He felt her in his mind, reaching for calm, and he gave it to her, looking for her read of the crew through her extra senses as he did so.  
Shock and anger, those weren’t very surprising. Doubt too. The approval, that was odd, and he frowned until River helped him pin that one to the first mate. Resignation from the Captain. Denial though, that was strong, and it didn’t surprise him at all that it came from the Doc. And then he was being shoved, ever so gently, from River’s mind as she crossed her arms and stared at her crew. He caught a thread of calculation, something to do with time, before she walled it off from him, and the man inside caught at it to try and figure out what the math meant. The jaguar just laid its chin on the girl’s knee and regarded him steadily. This was, in the end, her fight to win or lose. He’d stick with her no matter what, but he couldn’t affect the outcome.  
It was the Doc who spoke first, pushing between the captain and the gun hand and reaching for the girl with both hands. “River,” his voice was sad and condescending all at the same time. “River, when did you last meditate?”  
She snarled and backed away from him and into Riddick’s chest; he brought up his hands to steady her as she tried to keep right on going. He hadn’t missed the fact that there were still guns pointed at his head, but the Captain was letting the hammer down on his and holstering it. The Doc had stopped moving, and his face was as concerned as his scent was full of fear and worry. “River,” and it was a plea.  
“She will leave!” River stomped her foot and glared up into the man’s face. “She will leave again and never come back!” Riddick could smell her tears, and when she pulled away from him to lean up into the other man’s face he almost couldn’t let her go. But she wasn’t up in the branches of the tree any more, seated instead on the great spreading roots at its base, and all of her focus was on the man in front of her. “She is not ni zi anymore Simon! Not out of her mind except when she is! And if you think to wrap her back up in chains of cotton and wool you will find out exactly what the Academy made of her!” She was shrieking now, and the gun hand was wincing at the noise, but he kept his firearm pointed her way. Riddick could sympathize. The space they were in was fucking made to echo noises at high volume and pitch and his ears would be ringing for a while after that last outburst.  
The Doc, Simon, looked lost. Emotions ran one after the other over his face, and his mouth worked as he tried to come up with some sort of response. It was the Captain who spoke up, voice low and full of humor. “You know ‘Tross, you’re pretty much asking your brother there to stop being himself. Ain’t gonna be a time he ain’t worried about you.” He was fingering his gun in its holster as he spoke, and Riddick found himself certain that this man at least, knew exactly what River was capable of. Light eyes flickered up to meet silver before going back to the girl. “Me now, I figure you’re sane enough for the moment. The stars’ been explained after all,” and the corners of his mouth twitched as amusement overpowered the fear in his scent. “But,” his voice was dead serious, and there was a look in his eyes that almost made Riddick think he might be dangerous in the wrong circumstances. “You and this big hwoon dhan killed at least ten people in that bar, put a minimum o’ fifteen more in critical care, and left a whole pile of witnesses for the Feds to question. Gotta tell me ‘Tross. Were you sane then?”  
Something in River crumpled at that, wet earth and ozone rose in the air and a good bit of the steel went out of her spine. Riddick waited, as the animal hopped down to lay its head in her lap and the man took up a defensive stance in front of the two. She shifted in his mind, and he reached for her’s, feeling the sense of wrongness growing and still no explanation. Finally she sighed and ducked her head. “Triggered,” she muttered, twisting her hands together as she stared down at them.  
The Captain’s hand came away from his gun, and he laid it on the arm of the big gun hand. The man frowned, eyes flicking from River to Riddick to his Captain, but he finally grimaced and holstered his gun. That left just the sawed off to worry about. “Triggered,” the Captain murmured, as the Doc’s face twisted up in denial and something Riddick couldn’t really place at the moment. The man stepped forward, pushing the prissy rich boy back towards the gun hand and leaning down to tip River’s chin up. Riddick bit back a growl. “This a diffr’nt one than last time?  
“Different,” that was the Doc, and he pulled himself out of the grip of the gun hand and towards the Captain and River. "What do you mean different?"  
They ignored him, though Riddick eyed him warily. River was still staring at her Captain, and he could feel the tension rising to the surface in her. Whatever was on her face must have been answer enough. The Captain waited another moment, shook his head, and then straightened. "Well then, figure it's all up to the Doc. Simon," he turned to grab the rich kid and drag him forward. "Time ta make a choice. Needles an' scream'n an' blood; or believ'n her when she says she's fine?"  
Riddick raised a mental eyebrow at River. ::Wrap you up in chains eh?::  
She growled at the animal and man both, and the Captain stiffened in surprise as the sound worked its way out of her throat.  
::Not helping,:: she snarled before refocusing her attention on her brother. He was shifting from foot to foot, concern and fear on his face and in his scent. River got, if anything, even tenser and fairly vibrated in place. The three by the door were watching warily, fingering guns in holsters and alternating their watchful eyes between River, her brother, and only very occasionally, Riddick himself as they waited for real trouble to start. Finally, when he was about ready to just hit the Doc over the head and drag River out of there, guns or no guns, the man opened his mouth and words came out. “River, I-“  
“Yes or no ge ge!” River crossed her arms and glared. “It is very simple. Do you want your mei mei to turn back into a china doll for you to wrap up and hide in a box, pretty and useless, or do you want to see what the broken pieces form and love her for that? The girl is done Simon! Done! The hunters on the Hound are no more and she is back in the known solar systems. But she does not have to stay where she is just a thing! Where she is a memory of the girl you lost! She wishes to be herself. River!” And just like that, all the anger drained from her and she stepped forward to take her brother’s hands in hers. Riddick stiffened, mostly out of principle. River ran a hand over the animal’s head and laid her fingers on the man’s arm in his mind, and he settled again. She was ignoring him in the physical though, as she pleaded with her brother. “Please Simon. Do not wish to hurt. But she will. Attempt wrap her in chains of love and cotton and needles again and she will hurt you. You were-” she shook her head, and he could smell tears on the air. “You were doing well before she was caught. Almost didn’t think of needles and drugs every time the girl said something odd.”  
The man sighed. “River I-” he trailed off, and then reclaimed his hands to set one on either side of her face. “I’ll always worry River. I’m your brother after all. I just…I worry about what you went through. I’m still afraid-“  
“We’re all afraid of something.”  
“Will you let me finish?” Riddick bit back a growl and managed to keep his arms at his sides and his hands loose instead of reaching for River. As far as he was concerned this was still up in the air, and he wasn’t about to draw extra attention to himself when they still might need to fight their way out. He did however, stretch his way towards River’s mind, and found it a roil of hope, worry, bone deep fear, and something else. Something she was keeping walled off, even though he could feel her turn it over and over as if looking for a flaw. Something wrong radiated from that wall. Something very wrong. He breathed carefully, but all he found was apples and rain, very little lemon, and the mint of anticipation. Except for the lemon, none of that was anything that usually told him she was about to go off the deep end.  
The Doc had continued, oblivious. “You’re a wreck River. Bruises everywhere, cuts. I don’t know what you did to your feet.”  
“Danced them bloody on bad footing.”  
He rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. And you’ve been out now for two and half days, for no reason I can tell.”  
Her heart stopped. Riddick smelled charcoal so strong he was amazed the others couldn’t tell it was there. The churning in River’s mind stilled and for once nothing moved on her side of the bond. “What?” Her voice was a shriek, and he knew that she was digging through her brother’s head, and probably those of the rest of the crew as well. “No!”  
And then she was gone. Pushing her brother aside, squirming between the other members of her crew, and pounding off to who knew where. Riddick was after her before he even processed the fact that she was gone, the animal digging claws into his head and roaring while the man took note of the guns coming out of their holsters. He followed her scent out into the darkened room beyond the closet they’d had him chained in, down an echoing metal hallway, up a set of stairs, and onward into a dimly lit bridge.  
He had a moment to realize it was much bigger than the one in the Hound before he saw the starboard chair spin around and slim arms reach out from its sides to start flipping toggles and bringing up displays. ::River,:: he roared in her mind. She ignored him. He could hear the pounding feet as the rest of the crew rushed to catch up and could smell their fear and worry. But the threat they represented and the guns they carried weren’t what was important at the moment. He tried again. ::What the fuck River?::  
Still nothing.  
Snarling and angry with her for not sharing and for ignoring him and for ruining her chance to prove to these people that she was functional, he grabbed the chair, turned it back around, and yanked her out by the shoulders. He heard guns cocking and the distinctive ratchet of the sawed off, but there wasn’t time for that now. “What the fuck,” he snarled in her face. Her eyes were glazed, charcoal and fire rising, and she was scrabbling both for the safety of the animal’s tree and the walls in her own mind. He blocked her, the animal pinning the girl in the tree while the man got a chokehold on the weapon. “The hell is going on girl,” he roared.  
Someone had a gun barrel to his head again. He glanced over to see the Captain, bracketed by his first mate and the gun hand on either side. A knee in the gut pulled his attention back where it belonged. “She has a name,” the girl hissed up at him.  
“Too fucking long.” Maybe if he went back to old taunts it would wake something in her, get her to open up.  
She stilled, fingers still digging bloody half-moons into his skin and one foot braced on his hip like she was either going to kick him or try and push away, and her heart rate abruptly dropped. “Not as long as his,” she replied hoarsely, and he almost hoped he’d gotten through. “Too many titles.”  
“Any one mind tell’n me what the gorram hell is going on here?”  
Riddick ignored the Captain in favor of tilting his head at River. “What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong,” he bit out. She’d stopped struggling in his mind too, but she shrank away from him, curling in a ball and ignoring the man and animal both as they sniffed and prodded. If he had to take a guess, he’d say she was afraid and…ashamed?  
“She is! They have lost the girl! Triggered, called to home, but where is home?” She wasn’t digging furrows in his skin anymore, and her hands wandered restlessly over his arms as her mind cried out in the voice of a lost child. Kyra’s voice. Riddick froze, but she was still talking. The gun barrel had left his head; the animal only noted it in passing. “Where is home,” she repeated in a whisper. “Is it with the animal? Or the crew? Or nowhere at all!” She was gasping, chest heaving as if she’d run for miles. “Then someone wanted to take home from her and she wouldn’t let them. Fought.” Salt tears were ticking down her cheeks, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes either in the physical or in his mind. She’d wedged herself under the arch of one of the roots, and scrambled back till it would take a great deal of brute force for either man or animal to drag her out of her hiding place. At least she was still in his mind.  
He set her down carefully, so her feet were touching the floor again, but kept a firm grip on her shoulders. The witch-hazel wasn’t strong yet, but it was starting to make itself known. He pushed as much calm as he could towards her through their bond, pulled the man and the animal back to give her a little space, and had the satisfaction of seeing it have an effect in the physical as well. Her breathing evened out, and her heart slowed slightly. Dark eyes met his, and he became aware of the pain of the lights. Funny, the things he could ignore when he needed to.  
“You two have someone else along,” that was the Captain, voice wary as he stepped up next to them.  
Riddick blinked and stared at him as the first part of River’s rant caught up with his brain. What was it about this girl that made him feel so stupid and got him to overlook things like that? He shook her gently to get her attention, and then leaned down to look her more directly in the eye. “Plain English girl. What are you doing?” She gave him the look, and he snarled and shook her again, taking all the anger and frustration he felt at her lack of trust in him or his reaction to the news and ramming them over into her mind. The gun barrel found his temple again and the hammer pulled back, but luckily none of her crew was stupid enough to try and take her from him. Yet. “No,” he growled. “Two and half days. They’ve found her by now. We can’t go back. You want to get taken again?” His voice had been steadily rising, and he ended the protest in a shout.  
There was a yell of protest over by the door that sounded like the Doc, and a scuffle as the other two crew members tried to hold the man back. Steel and witch-hazel were coming off of River in waves now, and her frustration built in his mind. “Have to! Have to get her back! Can’t let them have her!”  
“No!” He was roaring before he knew it, and the animal was pushing its own brand of panic at him. “We go back there, we’re all dead! She doesn’t matter anymore!” It was truth. And a lie. And the girl in front of him knew it. She was fighting him again, clawing and twisting to get out of his grip and back to the pilot’s chair. He snarled and let go of her shoulders to get those hands under control. He had a moment to regret telling her he didn’t mind longer nails before the butt of a gun connected with head and the world spun. He snarled and let go of her to swing at the Captain, catching him in the jaw with his fist as River lunged past him for the others near the door.  
Riddick reached for his blades and realized they’d all been taken. All right then. Dropping low to avoid the punch the big gun hand flung at his head, he came up inside the man’s guard and placed an elbow under the man’s sternum. He fell back, gasping, and Riddick followed it up with a well-placed fist to his attacker’s head, snapping it around so hard that the rest of his body followed suit. Looking up, he saw that River had downed the dark skinned woman and the Doc was groaning against the wall. The captain was trying to regain his feet and the Furyan placed a boot in his stomach as he stepped over him and lunged for River, who’d gotten back in the pilot’s chair. ::Listen to me,:: he shouted in her head as the animal managed to get in under the tree with her. ::You’re what matters now!::  
“Words,” she hissed at him over her shoulder, and he growled back as he hauled her out of the chair again and dragged her up to eye level. “You,” he barked as he shook her. “You are what matters. Nothing is worth going back to get her. Not my life, not yours” Fear was coursing through him, the sort of fear he’d felt as the raptors cornered him in the mining settlement. She wanted to walk right back into monster’s cave, clip on the flimsy harness of her family’s love and head back to the planet that had already ambushed them once already. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was too late to get Kyra without getting caught. And if she tried, if he let her…his mind froze at the implications. Forcing his lungs to work, shoving everything he’d just thought in her direction, he managed to get the words out through clenched teeth. “Nothing is worth losing you, you fucking read me girl?”  
She stopped fighting, and in his head he could feel her trying to bury herself in the animal’s fur as the full meaning of his words made itself known to her. The weapon half of the girl circled the man warily, still focused on the fact that they’d lost Kyra and wanting to get back and make it right. Ozone, lemons, charcoal and fire wound their way up his nose. “Can’t let them have her though. The things they could do with her…” her voice cracked, and he could still hear the shame and tears in it.  
He frowned. The captain had managed to pull himself to his feet, the gun hand was out for the count, and the woman was just coming back to consciousness. He placed them by heartbeat and breath and then ignored them as he brought all his focus to bear on the girl in front of him. The wrongness was still radiating from her mind, and the calculations were covered in spikes that bit at him when he tried to figure them out. “Why not,” he growled, for lack of anything that could talk her out of this insanity. She flinched, and glared up at him. He glared back, unapologetic. If she wasn’t going to explain herself, then he’d have to work with what his own mind came up with.  
“Blue Sun,” she whispered finally. “Wanted the river back, wanted to dam and control it. What does it say, what does it tell you. Give us your secrets!” Her head rolled loosely on her neck, and she looked towards her crew members before coming back to him. Her eyes were glassy again, and there was something in them that brought to mind the looks of some of the more brainwashed Necromongers. “But with the girl, the Reaver among Painwalkers, they could have an army. Get the secret of conversion. Mix it with the Pax,” she reached up to lay both hands on his face, skin cold where it touched his. “Cannot let it happen.”  
“Reavers,” that was the Captain, and the first trace of true unreasoning fear he’d gotten off the man burned its way up Riddick’s nose. He glanced over. The man’s skin was pale, hand on the gun tightening as his eyes glanced around as if there were actually Reavers here. Now.  
“Where,” the Doc was on his feet, reaching for one of the guns, and looking thoroughly panicked.  
River shook her head, gaze still fixed on his. “Not here. Not now. But they will make more. Guide the process. Take the rage, the grief. The violence of Reavers.” Her gaze was boring into his now. “And add the control of the Painwalkers. Cover one pain with another,” her thumbs stroked the skin next to his eyes as she shifted inside his mind and some of the wrongness went away. “Don’t understand. None of you. No one understands the terror of the other’s nightmares. Think their own are bad enough”  
The Captain groaned and rubbed at his head. “Care to explain then ‘Tross? Cause none of it makes a lick of sense.”  
River snorted, and Riddick raised an eyebrow at her as he pushed the same question at her through their bond. She winced. ::Has never asked why she calls them Painwalkers.::  
::Seemed pretty obvious::  
“They screamed,” she whispered as he set her down and she dropped her hands to clench them at her sides. “In their heads. Of what they used to be. For who they used to be. They caved, they bent the knee. Took the pain and the needles,” she shuddered and lemons rose off her in waves, “and the serum and the basic genetic makeup was made different. No more pain, not in the physical. But in the mental…” She was staring at him through glassy eyes that weren’t focused anywhere on her physical surroundings. Her mind was full of knives, and he could feel her cling to the animal’s tree as she started to drift with the river. The man latched on to the weapon girl, planted his feet, and pulled against the current. They flew free with a snap, and River rocked on her feet as she stared up at him. “He doesn’t understand Reavers. Mad men. Lunatics. But they die like other men. He’s killed them by the score. Doesn’t know why everyone fears them so.” Without warning she shook her shoulders free of his grip, loose as it was, clapped her hands over his head, and shoved with her mind.  
Images, scents, emotions, even sounds washed over him. A planet of harsh light and cities full of dead that looked as if they’d just lie down and died. Settlements emptied, burned. Bodies were eaten even as they were raped. People screaming as one attacker chewed and another cut and stitched the still bleeding skin to a vest of rotting patchwork. Townsfolk running, mothers strangling children as the animal cries drew closer. A man shot himself in the head; another was taken down as he made sure the little girl in his arms would never move again.  
And then the scenes morphed. There was still the screaming fear, but the violence was controlled. Aimed. Armies stood and fell before the onslaught, as men full of suppressed pain and enough rage to account for nations rolled over the tops of their enemies. They were more coordinated, and they planned. Not just raids. Not just the kill and the eat and the revenge on anything with a heartbeat. There was that too, but over it all was the veneer he’d seen in the Necros. The dedication. The absolute willingness to die in droves just so one man could set up a miniature Icon and turn every single body for several meters around, including his own, into so much red paste.  
He saw them attack, reform the troops, and offer conversion to any who didn’t wish the same fate as the bodies around them. He saw them sharpening blades and choosing from the crowds like they were choosing food at a stall. And they were. Those who wouldn’t convert didn’t just die. They were consumed. Down to the bone. Or they were hung as a warning to all who came after, obscene decorations nailed to the walls of buildings and tied to the ships the armies commanded.  
He lost track at some point, of what was reality and what was bloody nightmare. The scents overwhelmed, the man couldn’t process so much forced information, and neither could find fire at his core to keep the dark at bay and his sanity anchored to his body. Awash in blood and terror, he drifted, floated down the river, and fell over the falls to the rocks below.

 

Author’s Note: I do live! I just...didn't know if I wanted to split the monster into separate books. I have. We'll see if it works better this way than as the 65 chapter behemoth it was originally. So. I rated it Mature for a reason. And it’s not just the lemons. That said, this was both a fun and horrible chapter to write. Fun, because I got to play with the crew, beat up Simon a bit (I really do love him, he’s just such a boob sometimes), and see how River and Riddick would react around them. It was hard because there was so much to keep track of, and I wanted everyone to act naturally. I realize I spent a fair bit of time building up the whole “wrap her in chains of love” idea, but keep in mind that not only was that her wallowing in her fears (backed by the fact that they WERE thinking of having to keep her drugged), but it was also a beast to have to continue and to have Mal and Simon and Co. all trying to tie her down and pump her full of drugs took this story in a direction I didn’t want it to go. This is after she’s run away and come back after all, and had several years to prove herself mostly sane. I’m not going to go into much detail on those years. All that matters is that nobody is exactly as the show and the movie left them. They’ve grown. Changed a bit. But I do still want them true to their essence.

As always, Firefly/Serenity and Riddick’s world aren’t mine. I wish. But no. /sob


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 19

_Hey white liar_

_The truth comes out a little at a time_

_And it spreads just like a fire_

_Slips off of your tongue like turpentine_

_And I don't know why_

_White liar_

                “White Liar,” Miranda Lambert

 

 

He came back to himself to the sight of River’s legs on either side of his chest, and he was so shaken by what he’d seen that he couldn’t even truly appreciate the view she was giving him. Death was not new to him. He’d killed enough people and seen enough blood and gore in his life that he wasn’t bothered so much by the ways the people in the visions had died. No, what he couldn’t get out of his head was the tidal wave of fear and terror that the hybrid army had pushed up in front of them. Like the Necromongers had in his home systems, only a thousand times worse. He’d never feared the Necros. They died like any other man. He still couldn’t bring himself to fear the Reavers, though he could understand why people who didn’t live in blood and death on daily basis would find them paralyzing. What had sunk into him with the bone deep instincts of his animal were the implications of the merger; the idea of combination of the two sweeping across the planets here and going in search of his, and then any further on. The ships here were faster, and the trip that had taken him something over a year and half once he’d left Helion would be far shorter for them.

There was reason he’d sent the Necros in the opposite direction from the one he’d decided to run in. He was no one’s savior, and he really couldn’t give fuck about the thousands of people who’d already died in their march across space. He could see in his mind’s eye the face of Imam’s little girl, of his wife. Of the child running around this very ship. He had to draw a line somewhere, and this was it. Once they were grown they could kill or be killed or just plain get mown over as their natures dictated. But to leave them to that sort of fate unable to defend themselves or get away was something he just couldn’t stomach. Never had been able to.

It was what had kept him from leaving Jack in the shipping container in the first place, from outing her right away. It had driven him to chance Johns shooting him to circle around and try and think of another way through the canyon. Almost every step he’d taken on that planet, once they’d started the hike through darkness, had been hounded by the knowledge that Jack was all hot air and didn’t have a fucking clue how to truly defend herself. Right up to the point where he’d called the whole effort off as useless and decided that if one person was going to make it off the fucking rock, it’d be him. He’d been too far gone in disgust and anger to really care at that point. That he’d cared at all in the first place was mildly surprising now that he thought about it.

River was shouting, but his ears were still ringing and he couldn’t make out all the words. There was a cold burning that told him he’d cut his head open somehow, and his legs didn’t want to move quite right. In his mind, she was trying to shake the man awake, while the animal paced nervously behind her. He groaned, and the shouting and yelling subsided somewhat. River twisted to look down at him, and he blinked up at her and tried to read her lips as she tried to say something with mind and voice. But his animal instincts required the man and the intellect he represented in order to manage any sort of higher thought process. Apparently lip reading landed in the same category as coherent languages in general.

::Riddick!:: Her voice rang through his head, snapping him out of the daze he’d drifted into, and he snarled reflexively as he clutched at his ears. Cool water dripped from her to him, both through his nose and in his mind, and he gasped, trying to get a handle on his body so it wouldn’t reach out and sweep her legs from under her. She was kneeling over him now, eyes worried, hands gentle, and something told him to just focus on breathing. On his. On hers. The animal’s pacing slowed as he felt their heartbeats match, and could feel it as she reached deep within herself for the wellspring that lay at her center and opened the floodgates. The man came sputtering awake, and Riddick felt his hands unclench. He realized then than he’d been gripping her fingers so tightly that they were white. She shook them out a bit before reaching for his head and pulling down the goggles he’d forgotten were there. He decided to take it as a measure of how far gone the man had been that he’d missed something so important. The girl’s face cracked slightly as she tried to smile at him. :: So sorry,:: she whispered, and even that scratched at his over sensitized internal hearing. ::Didn’t mean to…:: She shrugged, and looked back to where her crew was arguing amongst themselves as she helped him sit up. ::Had to make you understand how badly we need Kyra back.::

::Oh I get it,:: he managed to reply as she took both of his hands in hers and set her weight against his. ::Doesn’t change facts. Can’t go back there.::

Her face fell, but she nodded miserably. ::Will have to find another way. But first,:: she looked back at her family. The gun hand was still out cold, the Captain was standing in the way of a very fancy lady who smelled of incense and worry and anger and trying to reason with her as she tried to push past him. The first mate was holding herself up against the wall, and had never holstered her sawed off, although she looked as if she didn’t know who to point it at; him for being unknown and threatening, or the girl for being a known powder keg. He didn’t blame her. It was the Doc he couldn’t pin at first, until the smell of antiseptics and movement behind the fancy woman told him he was behind her. Riddick nearly snarled at the cowardice, till he realized that she was being bandaged up while she argued with the Captain.

::Your doing,:: he asked River as she followed his gaze.

She shrugged and gave a final heave to pull him to his feet. “They shouldn’t have locked her up if they didn’t want injuries.”

All eyes snapped back to them, and Riddick groaned. “Starting to think you go begging for trouble girl.”

“Has a name,” she muttered as she ducked under his arm and tried to take some of his weight onto herself. He didn’t let her have much. He knew he’d just flatten her.

“Too fucking long,” he grumbled back, and she flashed him a grin. Apples and rain, old blood and cool water were all he was catching from her now. The wrongness in her mind was mostly gone, even the weapon girl was back to wherever she hid herself when circumstance didn’t call her out. The animal was climbing back into its tree, the man dusting himself off and trying to get himself back online. The girl sat cross-legged by a stream that had appeared somehow, and was humming a song he didn’t know

“She could say the same of yours,” she whispered just as the Captain left the woman in the door to the Doctor’s care and stalked over to them. Riddick growled when the man stabbed a finger in River’s face, and the cold steel in the man’s eyes and scent didn’t speak well of whatever was about to happen.

“You done pitchin’ a fit ‘Tross? Or got a bit more running and scream’n left in ya,” the man’s voice was quiet, but there was a promising edge of humor in the anger. Hard eyes glances up towards Riddick’s face before coming back to meet those of the Reader.

River snorted. “For now. Unless you refuse to listen again,” and she looked over her Captain’s shoulder at her brother in the door. “And so long as _ge ge_ promises to treat her as River and not a doll.”

The Doc jerked his head up and gave his sister a glare that Riddick could almost approve of. “I promise River. But next time, don’t shriek and knock people out. There are only so many times a person can get hit in the head before I run out of ways to fix them.”

River snorted, Riddick chuckled, and the fancy lady rolled her eyes. “I would have let you out _mei mei_ ,” her voice was cultured, but warm. “If you would have just waited a moment.”

The Captain jerked around at that, but it was Zoe who spoke next. “She never does anything without meaning Sir, you know that.” A wry look twitched at the edges of full lips. “Although I agree, less screaming and hitting next time please.”

Riddick snarled as his animal dropped out of the tree to curl around the girl on the stream bank. “The fuck you say. She’s been tying herself in knots, scared stiff you all were going to dope her up and wrap her in chains, and you didn’t expect this?” He looked down at River, who was giving off the scent of silk so strong that he could have cut it in the air. “You never told me your crew was a pile of fucking idiots. Sure you want to stay with them?”

“Hey now-“

“Excuse me!”

“Who the hell are you to be-“

River doubled over, giggles ringing through his head and ears, and Riddick had to catch himself against the console as he realized she’d been giving him more support than he thought. He glared at her, then at the crew as they worked through various stages of shock and anger. Finally the Captain managed to put some words together, and glared up at the big ex-convict as he growled, “And how would you know anything about that?”

Riddick raised an eyebrow, and waited for the Captain to think on what he’d just said as River leaned her head against his side and slid down into a crouch. Carefully he poked at her mind, worried she was going off another deep end, even though he couldn’t smell charcoal or fire or any hint of witch-hazel. She flapped a hand at him, but didn’t complain when the animal nosed her over to check for damage. A rush of embarrassed anger from the man in front of them told Riddick that the dots had been connected. It was throttled down, and the eyes were hard as the Captain looked from the giggling Reader clinging to the leg of a big man to the face of the man himself.

“Right,” the man muttered. “River?” He was crouching down now to look her in the eyes. Or try to. She still had her face buried in her hands as she shook and quivered. “Feel like explain’n anything? Or you just gonna sit there and laugh till the cows come home?”

She choked, Riddick made an awkward grab for her shoulder as she threatened to topple over completely, and the Captain reached a hand out to steady her as a fresh wave of giggles poured out of her. Riddick lifted his lip in a snarl, but he was having enough trouble standing as it was. A soft hand ruffled the ears of his animal in reassurance, and River took two gasping breathes and coughed before sobering completely. “Only if the Captain is willing to listen and believe. And someone must wake Jayne. He needs to grumble and growl and glare like an angry bear.” She flashed a grin up at Riddick. ::She thinks eventually you may get along.::

Riddick snorted, hooked a hand under her arm, and helped her to her feet. ::Optimist::

::No. Both snarl and snap. Deal in blood and pain.:: She paused to glance over the heap that was the man named Jayne, then back to her Captain. ::Although he doesn’t get to kill as often. Captain has rules about unnecessary killing.::

The Captain was eyeing the pair, and Riddick could smell wariness and dread seeping out the man’s pores. Over by the door, the fancy woman was done being bandaged, and River’s brother was crouched over Jayne as the first mate looked on. There was something about the Doc’s face that made him think he wasn’t going to mind waking Jayne up, and the thought was confirmed when he pulled a bottle from one pocket, uncapped it, and waved it under the gun hand’s nose.

Jayne came up, snorting and waving his hands. “Gorramit all to hell! What is that?”

River started giggling in his head and gave him a picture of a dainty lady wrapped in miles of restricting cloth falling over in a faint as the Doc answered “Smelling salts.” He was grinning, and the rest of the crew was shaking their heads.

Riddick looked down at River. “Never. You hear me girl?” He could smell it from here, now that the air had brought the stench over. It was awful. Vinegar and eggs, rotten flowers and decaying flesh. “I’m ever out, you do anything but that.” He couldn’t help it, his nose was wrinkling. The thought of waking up to that, right under his nose, was enough to make him wish for the Necromonger’s Underverse instead. The animal snorted and scrubbed at its face with its paws as the man went and got sick behind the tree. The girl at the stream laughed at them both and sent an array of images of other ways she could wake him up if need be. ::Not helping,:: he managed to scrape together enough coherent though out of the rush of anticipation before the crew got themselves to their collective feet. She just raised an eyebrow and gave him his own smirk in return.

Jayne was still growling about the smell and crazy little girls and big _hwoon dahns_ that felt the need to punch anything that moved. The Captain had thumbed an intercom and called for Kaylee to get to the galley, which occasioned an eye roll from his first mate as they heard joyful squealing ring through the ship; followed closely by a small body pushing past the woman at the door and launching itself at River. The girl stumbled back slightly as the child scrambled her way up River’s legs and managed to perch herself on the Reader’s hip.

Riddick grunted and braced her with a hand at her back as River laughed and spread her arms wide, forcing the child to cling or drop. ::Guess I’m on my own then.::

::The Riddick is big and strong. But if he wishes, she will see if the smelling salts can help.:: River never looked at him, attention fixed on the little girl babbling happily away. He could smell the silk of her joy, so scarce until now, and only gave her a token snarl in her head before reaching for the pilot’s seat as his next solid point of contact. It was a mistake, and the chair swiveled out from under his hand just as he put his full weight on it. River lunged for him, but the child on her hip had gotten ahold of one arm and his girl just wasn’t going to make it before he cracked his skull open again.

And then someone was catching him, someone much taller than River, and he found his arm over the shoulder of the dark skinned first mate. He blinked, and her lips twisted wryly as the rest of the crew stopped to see what would happen. He nearly growled. Was everything some sort of entertainment to them? Over the first mate’s shoulder, River smiled and rolled her eyes and that was enough of an answer for him.

The woman next to him smelled of leather, sorrow, gun oil and brown sugar. Worry radiated off of her like a small sun, and the fear that had been in her scent earlier was faint. So faint, that he realized there must never have been much of it in the first place. He gave her another look as she got him going in the direction of the door, and then a glance back to River where she took up the rear of the little train of people. When he looked back to the woman, she was meeting his eyes through the goggles. “River likes you. Never found a bad apple with her picking,” she said in answer to his unspoken question, and that was that.

They made it down the stairs and back into the room at the end of the hall. Now that he wasn’t chasing anyone through it, he could see that it was the galley. The lights were on, and the crew was rearranging chairs around the long wooden table. He grunted as the first mate helped him lower himself into one and relaxed a little as apples and rain, silk and mint drifted up around him. The old blood was an itch in his mind, and the animal snorted as it examined it. River patted his shoulder as she walked past him to hand the little girl on her hip over to the mechanic, then pulled a chair over and sat down next to him, so close their legs touched. The animal purred in its tree and he laid the arm not leaning on the table over the back of her seat. He caught the looks the crew gave each other, and a variety of new scents came his way as breathing changed all around. He snorted to himself. Let them look. Let them wonder. He wasn’t going to hide his claim.

Cool fingers reached up to lace themselves with the hand over her shoulder, and a fresh wave of her scent washed over him as she leaned her head against his arm. ::And nor will she hide hers.:: Pulling her mind away from his, she leveled a look at her Captain. “Ask.”

He exploded. “What the rutting hell happened?!”

Riddick laughed. It wasn’t his wisest move ever, all things considered, but the look on the man’s face was too much. Indignation, shock, anger, and worry were all mixed together, and he knew exactly how it felt. When the man turned those hard eyes on him, Riddick just laughed harder. An elbow in the side courtesy River made him stop laughing long enough to growl at her. “What,” he snapped, and ignored the hands that reached for weapons all around the table.

“Be nice,” she glared up at him, although humor bubbled through her mind.

He snorted. “What made you think I was nice,” he muttered, before looking back up at the Captain. “Been asking myself the same question, this past month or so. Was the girl born this irritating, or did that come with the cutting on her?”

The Captain stiffened, but it was the Doc who answered. “She was born irritating and smug. The…” he waved his hand vaguely, sending a draft of resignation and anger their way as he scowled across the table. “That just made it harder to put up with.” He crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. “There’s no denying it River. You love confusing people.”

“Be that as it may,” the Captain cut in before River could reply. “Still need answers. River,” he turned to look at the girl. “Serious now. What happened?”

River sat for a moment, running fingers through the fur of the animal as it lay beside her on the stream bank. Riddick watched her with eyes and nose and ears as the man crouched down next to her and started sharpening a shiv with a nearby stone. Finally, just as the little girl behind them was starting to get restless, she spoke. “Names first,” and she glared at the Captain. “Bad manners.”

The woman who smelled of incense and perfume over leather and silk laughed behind her hand as the Captain’s face twisted. Riddick raised an eyebrow at the woman, and then looked at the rest of the crew. Their faces showed various degrees of amusement over the watchfulness they hadn’t let drop yet. Even the first mate, who looked like she never smiled at all, had a smile tugging at the sides of her mouth. Twisting back to look down at River, he pushed a question at her through their bond.

She never took her eyes off the Captain as she answered. “Wanted high ground. Wanted to put him on defense.” The Captain’s scent was giving off embarrassment and anger and his mouth pulled into a wry smile. “They laugh because he’s gotten out of the habit of guarding his thoughts.”

“Right, well…” The Captain hooked his thumbs into his belt in a gesture of forced calm. “You caught me. Care to do the honors?”

River unlaced her fingers from Riddick’s and stood, moving up next to the other man like a cat hunting prey. The animal inside perked its ears, and Riddick himself sat forward. The Captain watched the Reader warily, but he wasn’t going for a weapon. River paced once around her Captain while the rest of the room held its collective breath. Finally, after leaning up and staring into his face for a long moment, she grinned and turned back to the watchers. “Captain Daddy. Malcom Reynolds. Owns _Serenity_ , finds work. Gets shot more often than is good for him.”

“Hey now, gett’n shot’s good for no one!”

But she was gone, off to rest her head on the shoulder of the dark skinned woman. The lady wrapped an arm around River and gave a one armed hug before going back to being serious and dangerous.

“Zoe Washburne. First mate. Mother to Sierra. Does her best to keep the Captain alive.” River grinned as the rest chuckled.

The gun hand twitched as she came near, and his face was a mix of fear and resignation. Riddick caught anger in his scent as well, and stiffened as the girl stared hard at the other man. Finally he stood, knocking his chair backwards in the process. “Gorramit girl, ya know that’s creepify’n. Stop digging in my head.”

River grinned and flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around the man’s chest and squeezing. Riddick growled and started to lean forward. ::What the fuck?::

::Shhhh. Unpredictability is a fine weapon.:: River let go of the tall man, who was sputtering and yelping and checking for all his weapons. “Jayne Cobb. Merc, gun hand,” she shrugged. “Charged with keeping the ship safe. Recently in acquisition of a new guitar.” She reached up and poked the man in the chest as his scent turned about four variations of embarrassed.

Riddick bit back a chuckle. ::Never a dull moment. You mind fuck your crew like this all the time?::

::Not so much,:: her voice was faint, more of her attention on the next person at the table than on him. ::Special occasion.:: She stopped in front of the man as he stood, face and scent full of worry and heart beating far faster than anyone else’s in the room.

They stared at each other a moment before he opened his arms, very carefully, and asked. “No hug for me?”

River tilted her head to one side. “Are you hiding needles for her anywhere on your person?”

There was a collective mutter from the crew, and the man sighed as his face fell. “River…”

She shook her head and stepped into his arms. “Missed you _ge ge_. But must remember his promise.” The man sighed, wrapped his arms around his sister, and squeezed. Riddick frowned as he watched. He couldn’t smell deception on this man, but then again, it was sometimes hard to tell when River was about to flip a switch on him in the first place. Finally, River stepped back and grinned over at him. “Simon. Frye, Tamm, all depends on the day. Trauma surgeon. Ship’s doctor. Would rather not have to stitch up so many wounds, but it keeps him in practice. Husband to Kaylee.” She frowned and looked back at her brother. “He should be less worried about the cuts and bruises. They are healing.”

Simon opened his mouth, took another look at his sister, and snapped it shut again. She grinned as the rest laughed, and moved on to the woman at the foot of the table. She was a puzzle, Riddick thought. Incense and perfume and silk he could see, but the gun oil and leather was somewhat unexpected. She held herself with a certain sort of grace, and even the bandage on her forehead wasn’t doing much against the beauty she would probably have even in rags and covered in dirt.

::Carefull,” River murmured. ::The girl might get jealous.:: But she was smiling, in his head and up at the woman, and there were no hesitations here. The hug she gave the woman was brief, but heartfelt, and he could smell the apples and rain and silk even over all the rest of the people in the room. The woman traced River’s face with a finger and pushed a bit of hair back before glancing over at Riddick with speculation in her eyes. He raised an eyebrow and sat back, wondering what the look was for, but River wasn’t sharing and none of the crew seemed to think it out of the ordinary.

“Inara Sera,” River said as she looked over at him with something like mischief in her eyes. “Companion _li_ _è t_ _óu r_ _én_ , Captain’s wife.” She grinned up at the woman. “Very good shot, especially with a bow.” The lady laughed and gave River a kiss on the forehead before stepping out of the way so she could move on.

The next woman smelled of hope and no little fear, but she jumped up and nearly tackled River before the girl had made it two steps. “Oh River,” she gasped. “So glad your home! The Captain can’t land ‘er gently to save all our lives, and the pert line is gonna go unless someone talks him into stopping for repairs, and everyone’s been so _angry_! Oh _Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean ja_!” The woman kept babbling and the child she was holding laughed and clambered out of her arms to perch on River’s shoulders. Shaking her head, Zoe left her place and went to pull her off, while the Captain yelped and protested the assessment of his flying skills. Riddick shook his head and kept his smile to himself, but a part of him shuddered. All that cheer was almost too much to handle and he hoped the mechanic would keep away from him with it. He’d never met someone so bright without a great many secrets hidden behind the smile, and he didn’t need to know this one’s.

::Wrong,:: River’s laughter bubbled in his head. ::She is honest. Honest in fear and honest in joy. Riddick has simply never been around enough people who have reasons to be truly happy.:: Out loud, she laughed and returned the hug before stepping back and facing him. “This is Kaylee. Mechanic, engineer. Talks to _Serenity_ and the ship talks back. Wife to Simon.” River grinned at the woman before reaching up and taking the hand of the little girl Zoe was still holding. “And Sierra. Zoe’s daughter. Trouble from day one.” The little girl stuck out her tongue and made a face at that and River laughed. “But the good kind.”

She ruffled the girl’s hair and grinned at her before coming back to stand near him. Apples and rain, menstrual blood, silk and the mint of anticipation filled the air around him. Her heart and breath were even, and her presence in his mind was as steady as it had ever been. Amazingly, something about her seemed to be giving him calm, an ability to stay seating in a room full of mostly unknown quantities and not wonder which would stab him in the back. It helped that most of them were in front of him, and he could tell who didn’t know anything about weapons, but the feeling was odd. He wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with it, but neither was he really uncomfortable either.

But then she was right behind him, and he could feel the heat of her body as she rested her hands on his shoulders. She was grinning at him in her mind, and he realized she was waiting for him to speak. He snorted, relaxed a little more into his seat, and smirked at the expectant and wary looks on the crew’s faces. ::Ready for the yelling girl?::

She swatted him over the head and he turned to mock snarl at her. “Stop fishing for a reaction,” she muttered, but she laughed in his mind. He gave her another growl, and his nostrils flared as he caught apprehension as it bloomed again in the room.

"Richard B. Riddick,” he said finally. “Escaped convict, murderer. Former Lord Marshal.” He made thought action and caught River’s hand before she could pull away from where she stood behind him. “Match.”

River laughed as the crew reacted, doubling over and bracing herself on his shoulders.

Oddly enough, at least in his eyes, it wasn’t the first two descriptions they focused on. The Captain was frowning as he mouthed “Lord Marshal?” and Jayne was scratching his head, obviously trying to puzzle out what it meant. The Companion’s eyes were a mix of worry and amusement, and Zoe was eyeing them both with something more than speculation in her gaze. He could smell the mechanic’s joy, leavened with some appprehension as it overpowered the rest of her scents, and he fought the urge to sneeze it from his nose. What the fuck was wrong with these people that they didn’t seem to care about the first half of the introduction?

::They are all wanted for one thing or another. All but Kaylee have taken life. And even she would be arrested if they were caught. Captain and Zoe were soldiers on the losers side.:: River had managed to stop laughing long enough to answer, and her arms slid around his neck as she gasped for breath. ::Jayne never makes friends. His trail of dead is smaller than yours though, tends to only kill when money’s on the line. _Ge ge_ ,” she shrugged, straightened back up, and slipped back into her chair next to him. ::Blue Sun wants him dead for having freed his sister.::

::And the Companion,:: Riddick asked, eyeing the woman as she shook her head at the Captain. Voices were flying around them, but none of them were an active threat at the moment, so he kept his focus where it was.

::Knew the Captain and what he did long before she made her choice.::

“Match.”

Riddick’s head jerked around. Simon was looking at them, eyes hard and questioning. He couldn’t pick out his scent from the confusion around them, but he could take a guess. The brother may have promised to listen to his sister when she claimed sanity, but he was already making up his mind not to like the Furyan. Fine then, he wasn’t so fond of the moneyed Doctor either.

::Not rich. Not anymore. Retains the habits though,:: River sighed in his head and looked up at him. “Start at the beginning?”

Riddick snorted and the rest of the crew stopped talking to look at them. Sierra wormed her way out of her mother’s grasp and clambered into River’s lap to stare at him, and the two sets of dark eyes were so intent that he found himself a little unnerved. “Not really a story for kids, yours or mine,” he tried, just to see if he could get rid of one of those pairs of eyes. Zoe slipped around the table and met his gaze through the goggles, then picked up her daughter and set her on one hip. There was something there, something he couldn’t place in her expression, and he prodded at River’s mind to try and get her to let him see what she was getting from the first mate.

She ignored him, even though she was grinning at him. “Made of soft caramel, you are,” she muttered, and laughed as he gave her a hard poke in the shoulder for that comment. Bodies stiffened around the table, but they all waited to see what would happen before going for any weapons.

Zoe was leaving the room, muttering something about fresh sheets and picking up rooms as she went, and he watched her for another moment before turning back to the Captain. The man stared at him, holster unclipped, but his arms were crossed over his chest while he eyed the pair in front of him. Finally, when the silence had gone on just a bit too long, River sighed and leaned forward. “Long story Captain Daddy. Will have to be patient.” She looked around at the rest of the crew. “Will have to hold their questions till she is done.” And without any further lead in, she started.

She began with her capture by the mercs hunting her, moved on to tell how she’d woken out of cryo and killed a couple before they put her down again, and worked her way through the rest of the tale from there. When she spoke on hearing the Reavers board the ship and take the crew before they left it to drift as bait for the next fool to come along, something in the Captain’s face tightened; but he kept his mouth shut for the moment. She didn’t bother telling them how Riddick’s ship had come to be in that part of space. He had the feeling that he’d be the one stuck explaining that, and he gave her a mental glare for that little gift. She ignored him, both in the physical and the mental.

It didn’t take as long as it had when she told him the story of how she’d come to live on _Serenity_ and get caught, and she left out a great many smaller details. Riddick didn’t know how he felt about that. On one hand, they didn’t need to know about her nearly braining him in the engine room or why she’d felt the need to try and kick him the face that day they’d gone through the ship. Nor did they need to know that he’d nearly killed her to get to the shower first, or that he’d sat in her bunk and gone through her sketches while she slept next to him. Or even the number of times she’d tried to kill him in return. On the other hand, she glossed over the night she’d had the panic attack in the galley, the confrontation in Saddler’s hole, and even the conversation with Badger. Several times one of the crew opened their mouth to ask a question, or try to interrupt, and she glared them to silence before continuing.

Finally, she reached the part where he’d found her crying in the cargo bay and fumbled to a stop. He watched her carefully, wondering what she’d say, how she’d explain everything that had happened. He himself was still working out the meaning of half of it. Burnt sugar rose in the air, along with vanilla and a hint of wet earth. She met his eyes through the goggles and the crew around the table shifted uneasily in their chairs. Strangely enough, Zoe returned to the room, though he could hear her footsteps echoing faintly through the halls.   Probably didn’t trust her daughter not to come back and get an earful of slaughter and who knew what else. He didn’t blame her.

It was Inara who broke the silence as she sat forward and stretched her open hands out in front of her. “River?” Her voice was soft, understanding. “It’s ok you know.”

River took a deep breath, laced her fingers through his where they hung over her shoulder, and froze.

He laughed, earning himself a round of evil looks from those around the table, and grinned down at her. “Not so fearless now, are ya?”

She glared up at him, but her hands were buried in the fur around the shoulders of his animal, and it stuck its nose in her ear.

He looked back at the crew and shrugged. “She kept trying to make me leave. Take a chance at freedom where I wouldn’t be hunted for a while. Knew I’d get a bounty on my head eventually. But at the time…,” he shrugged. “Clean slate. Nearly took the chance. Could have left her with the Sasquatch, taken the ship, gotten clear.” He glanced down, but River was watching her crew, avoiding his eyes as wet earth rose in the air. He gave her a mental caress, and the animal in him nudged her with its nose in an attempt to get her attention. ::Long past now River. We made our choices.:: She didn’t respond right away, so he turned back to the story. “Didn’t do it though.” He shrugged, “Couldn’t. Distracted the mercs, got her on board the _Hound,_ and laid in a course for Haven.”

“Asked him why when she woke,” River’s voice was soft, and the crew had to lean forward to hear. She glanced up at him and back down at her lap, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. “She is trouble. It follows her. Bar on Persephone should be proof enough.” She shifted in her seat and in his mind, and Riddick snarled, forgetting about the crew for the moment as he reached to turn her free hand over.

“Look at this,” he growled. “And get that shit out your head. Told you before; I’m as likely to get you killed as you are me.” He leaned down and tipped her face up so she had to meet his eyes. “Don’t fucking care what they do. Got me?”

“But he can be triggered now too,” her eyes were huge and her voice cracking. “Two walking grenades instead of one.”

Riddick leaned back as he mulled that over, ignoring the worried voices of the crew as they started asking questions. Finally, just as he started smelling the ozone of true despair creep into her scent, he shook his head. “Then we figure a way to pull the switch. No worries if they can’t trigger you.”

“Hey,” A hand slapped down on the table, and Mal was leaning over them both. “Mind sharing with the rest a’ us?”

Riddick lifted his lip and reached for a shiv that wasn’t there, and River gifted her Captain with the now familiar _look_. The ex-convict found himself relieved that he wasn’t the only one who got that from her. He waited a moment, just to see if the other man was going to push things any further, before starting the story again. “She has this thing about words,” he paused as the Captain and his crew rolled their eyes or groaned as their natures dictated. “See you know. Wouldn’t take what was in my head as explanation. Me, I wouldn’t say it.” He shrugged, refusing to say more on the topic and just about ready to be done with the story altogether.

River though, seemed to think they needed more.

“Very few come to know the Riddick well and live long afterwards. Wisest for the girl to not get close,” she leveled a glare at her brother, and he snapped his mouth shut and settled for looking stubborn. “Words are stones after all, and she hadn’t decided whether to come back to _Serenity_ or not yet. Was still too afraid of _go se_ needles and being thought crazy.”

Riddick wondered if she realized that she was curling further and further into him, both with mind and body, as she ground out the last words between clenched teeth. He glared around at the crew as they shifted in their chairs and avoided looking at the Reader in their midst. “So they argued, and later she went to ask Kyra what she should do.” Fingers were twitching in his, and he could smell her remembered despair. There were tears rising in her eyes, and she’d climbed the tree in his mind again to nestle herself against the animal.

“Found her there,” he said, to spare her trying to speak. “Pissed as fuck, wandered out in the cargo bay and found her praying to a dead girl.” They hadn’t explained much about Kyra beyond the fact that he’d taken her under his wing and that she’d died for him, none of his past had been touched on in any depth. He knew that there were going to be a great many questions he wouldn’t want to answer on that score. No way around answering them though, not if they wanted help getting her back. “Had to keep her from crying herself to death somehow. Gave her the words she wanted. Sealed them in blood.” And he turned his arm up so he could show them, and then lifted River’s as well. It had the expected effect.

“You what!?” The Doc was up, fists clenched at his sides and veins popping. The Captain and the gun hand had pushed themselves to their feet right behind him, hands going for weapons. In the chair behind River, the mechanic was giving off fear and fascination, while Inara looked shaken, but less angry than interested. “What gives you the right-” the man choked on his rage for a moment before finding his voice again. “That’s barbaric!”

Simon was still sputtering when River stood and leaned past Riddick to hiss in his face. “I gave him the right. Me! River! He put a knife in my hand and gave me blood. So I did the same for him! _Tian xiz shou you de ren dou gai si_!” She slammed a fist down on the table and Riddick grunted when she braced a knee a little too close to his balls for comfort as she crawled over him. Steel and witch-hazel were pouring off her in waves; and the weapon was crouching at the base of his tree, hissing in a voice like blades rasping over each other. “ _Tah mah duh hwoon dahn_! Simon, she is a woman grown. She had found someone who doesn’t fear her! Who keeps up and sees her _as she is_!” The other fist came down, and she growled at her brother in a voice more in keeping with the animal’s than anything Riddick had ever heard from her. “Learn to be happy for the girl Simon!”

Riddick reached into her mind with hands and soft paws and found her there, merging the river at her core with the waif and the weapon. Carefully as they could, man and animal set themselves among the three, while at the same time he reached up and tried to pull River back down into her seat. ::River,:: he whispered, but all her attention was focused on her brother.

The crew had stilled, holding their breaths as they waited for the response. Simon stared at his sister, and Riddick could almost feel the thoughts of anger and denial churning through the boy’s mind as he fought with himself. Riddick ignored it as a symptom of being so far into River’s head, and set himself to trying to keep her from merging into a whirlwind of death he knew she’d regret later.

He was doing a fair job of it too; and had even managed a wry twitch of the lips at the thought of being the one to try and keep someone from killing everything in sight instead of the other way around when one of the Doc’s stray thoughts trickled from the river and into his animal.

He was up and moving before he knew what he was doing; dumping River to the floor as he reached for the pressed collar of the other man’s shirt and hauled him across the table and over the near edge. “What the _fuck,_ ” he found himself roaring as the man landed on the deck and went sliding into the wall. He’d planted a boot in the man’s gut and then to the side of his head before the Doctor could do more than gasp. He could hear people yelling and feet running, but the meaning of the words and the threat of the weapons being pulled was lost to him as red rage misted over his brain. “What the fuck do you think I am!?” He drove his foot into the Doctor’s stomach again and wished he knew where his blades were. Fear enveloped him as the crews’ bodies betrayed the hard lines of their faces and he snarled again in satisfaction as it seeped into him. This was what he was, and they’d better fucking know the monster they had in their midst before they went and earned their deaths as thoroughly as this fuck had.

And then River was there, weapon and girl clinging to the shoulders of the man-animal merge in his head. She grabbed the arm he was using to reach for the Doc, slid under and around, and planted a foot in the back of his knee. He lost his balance and started to go over backwards, feeling cool water and steel close over his head as she landed on his back and grabbed hold of his ears. He roared a protest, and tried to tear her off. But he his center of gravity was off, and she had her knees digging into his ribs and was shouting in his ear. He went down completely, and tried to land so she was pinned under him, but she scrambled free and placed herself between him and her brother as he came up. The Doc was still on the deck, groaning as he held his stomach, and Riddick could smell the beginnings of nausea as the man tried not to hurl his guts all over the floor. The big man snarled and started forward, intent on setting River aside and beating the shit out of the man who had _dared-_

A backhanded blow to the jaw and a heel planting itself in his diaphragm brought him up short, and the girl-weapon managed to get the animal separated from the man long enough to make him hear when she shrieked at him with mind and lips. “No! Stop Riddick!”

He picked her up by the shoulders and growled at her, and felt the cool metal of three gun barrels make their home at the base of his neck. River glared up at him, teeth bared and yelled again. “Enough you _shiong-muh duh duang-ren_! Listen!” And she squirmed out of his hands and slapped her smaller ones over his ears.

He yelled as the compressed air impacted his eardrums, but didn’t make a move to fight her, sticking to shouting instead. “You fucking heard him girl.” He looked over her shoulder at the man still trying to catch his breath and find his feet. The mechanic was helping him up, face full of worry and fear as she watched River with huge eyes. “He thought I’d _raped_ you!”

River winced, and steel and burnt sugar rose off her as the crew around them stilled. Behind her, the Doc coughed, spat out a wad of blood, and glared. “What-” he croaked, coughed again, and started over. “What was I supposed to think? They bring her home, cut to pieces and bruises everywhere, telling me she and the big _hwoon dahn_ they’d picked up were trying to kill each other in a bar.” He limped a little closer, and River moved her hands from Riddick’s ears to his chest as he leaned forward to growl at the man. The mechanic went pale, but stayed where she was, lending her support to her husband. “If I had the supplies, I would have done a rape kit on _any_ of the women on board if they’d come home looking like River did.” The doc was trying to draw himself up to his full height, but it wasn’t working very well. He settled for glaring instead, and Riddick matched him stare for stare.

“Riddick,” River’s voice was soft, and she and the weapon were keeping themselves very much between the man and animal in his head; while cool water washed over all four of them and drowned out the last lingering bits of blind rage. He looked down at her, and she traced a finger down his jaw. “She appreciates the sentiment, but _ge ge_ has a point.” And she stepped back and lifted her arms so he could see her. They’d left her in the clothes she’d been wearing, pants and a shirt with three-quarter sleeves, but her feet were unshod, and the bandages still there. The cut down her arm was healing well, but it was long and had been deep enough that they should have probably stitched it. Bruises covered her neck and shoulders, some fresh, some fading to the paler shades of what he knew to be yellow and sickly green. He blinked. What he’d seen as marks given and matched in return, he saw now as the Doc must have. River smiled as she caught the thought and dropped her hands. “Can understand now?”

Behind the girl, the Doc was starting to look smug, and Riddick glowered at him as he settled back and the guns were lifted from his neck. Incense and perfume shifted in the air, and he looked over to see the Companion easing around his flank, tucking the short barreled pistol she’d been holding into the back of her belt. He raised an eyebrow and she smiled at him before looking over at the Doc. “The trouble is Simon, is that you were looking at her through the eyes of a brother. You saw bruises and evidence of battle and assumed the worst.” She held up a hand as the Doc opened his mouth. “Granted, that was before they woke up and River proved she was anything but afraid of him, but how closely did you look at _either_ of them?” The woman reached up and Riddick stared as she pulled at the collar of his shirt. “See that? Just as bad as River.” She let go of Riddick and moved forward so she could draw River’s hair away from her neck. “I know you know what a hickie looks like Simon. You and Kaylee walk around with plenty of them yourselves. These are just rather spectacularly huge.” She frowned back at Riddick and River fed him reproach and resignation flavored with sandlewood. “With teeth marks around them.”

The Doc was turning colors as embarrassment and anger rose in the air around him. His mouth flopped open and shut a couple times, and Riddick chuckled at the looks on the faces of the crew as they closed in around the pair to take a closer look. He didn’t mind in the least; but River groaned in his head and stepped forward to press her face into his chest and that ended all amusement on his part. “Not a freak show people. Give her some space or I won’t stop with a beating next time.”

All except the Companion stuttered and backed off and she simply smiled at him when he glared at her, brushed a hand over River’s hair, then turned away to walk out the same hatch Zoe had, muttering something about seeing if the first mate needed any help . River stilled, and Riddick wondered if the woman had directed a specific thought her way. But he didn’t get a chance to ask her because the Captain was speaking again.

“All right then,” Mal’s voice was as uncomfortable as his face, and he scratched at the back of his neck. The gun hand next to him was watching the proceedings with some interest and no little disgust on his face, and Riddick wondered if this was the next man he’d need to pound into the ground. River shook her head at him as Mal continued. “Think we can guess the rest. You got in touch with Badger, had him set up the meet. Got triggered in that bar.” He sighed and came over to lay a hand on River’s shoulder. “Did you plan to come with us at all?” This close, Riddick could smell the sadness coming off the man, along with something else he couldn’t pin down. In his mind, the girl showed him a deep seated regret that reached all the way back to the day she’d come on board. Interesting that.

River backed up to meet her Captain’s eyes. “Didn’t know. Wanted to see if it would be needles and threats or acceptance first. _Did_ have cargo.”

“The dead girl you moved from his ship?” The Captain’s voice was wary. “You know our record with bring’n dead folk aboard _Serenity_.”

“She is truly dead,” River whispered. “Promised to take her to Haven, she deserved a place to rest.”

The Captain blinked, and looked at Riddick, but the man didn’t feel like giving him any clues. It hit too close to home, and was too much like giving trust to these people he still wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to kill next time they looked at him wrong. Frowning, the Captain ran a hand through his hair. “And since we didn’t get her aboard, you think the Alliance will want her.”

River shook her head. “Blue Sun. Take the Pax, take the serum in her veins. Create new soldiers. Like Reavers but not. Controlled, aimed. Could stabilize the Alliance with them, if they can make the merge work.”

The Captain shuddered, and fear rolled off of all the rest of the crew left in the room. Riddick fought the urge to try and rub it out of his nose and settled for glowering at River instead. “Told ya,” he grumbled, “can’t go back. Two and half days out, two and half more in. They’ll either have a trap waiting or surveillance, and the minute you set foot back on that planet they’ll _know_ how important she is.”

“He’s right,” Jayne holstered his gun and hooked his thumbs into his belt. “Even at hard burn that’s five days to figure out where you two docked.” The man leaned forward so he could meet River’s eyes. “We all gone through too much Moonbrain, to walk back inta that.”

This close, Riddick could smell concern and worry under all the fear; and he raised an eyebrow at the gun hand before turning back to River. “One step at a time girl. Can’t fix it now.”

“But what do we do?” That was Kaylee, still holding her husband up and reeking of terror. Her voice shook with it, and Riddick sighed internally. It was a wonder this woman hadn’t gotten herself killed yet. River chuckled wryly and patted him on the shoulder in agreement; ignoring the confused looks the crew gave her.

“Like the man said,” the Captain repeated. “One step at a time.” He looked at the pair in front of him a moment, trying to meet Riddick’s eyes through the goggles, before jerking his head at Jayne. “Seems like it’s about mealtime. Jayne, you want to get something started? Kaylee, get the Doc down to the infirmary, make sure he ain’t got internal bleeding or some such. Then head on to the engine room. We’re gonna drop down to half speed for a while. Give a yell when it’s ready.” The crew members split off to their duties, leaving River and Riddick standing alone. He gave them a once over and crossed his arms. “Now, River, you feel up to pilot’n yet or should I stay up in the bridge a while?”

Riddick blinked as River heated up like a small furnace in his mind and burnt sugar rolled off of her in waves. She stiffened in front of him, and crossed her arms as she stamped her foot. “Captain Daddy is a hypocrite!” When he prodded for an answer, she threw a jumble of arguments in his direction, all having something to do with shipboard romances being A Very Bad Idea. To top it off, she dumped her initial assumption of what the Captain would be expecting from them based on what the man knew of them so far. Not that Riddick didn’t plan on doing any of those things to her, but now wasn’t really the time. Besides, there was still the whole issue of her bleeding that needed to be worked out too. Was she really serious about a week with no sex? Did she think the blood bothered him much?

The man snorted and shook his head, oblivious to the rabbit trails the ex-convict’s mind was running down. “Learned that lesson long ago ‘Tross. I’m serious. Your brother still needs to check those feet, and that bite on your man’s shoulder is too big to come from you.” He paused as Riddick growled and set his jaw before continuing, talking to Riddick this time. “The man is a doctor in that infirmary, and Jayne’s living proof that he holds to his oaths.”

“Venereal disease,” River chirped, and Jayne squawked a protest over by the stove. They ignored him, the Captain and River chuckling and Riddick blinking at them both.

“Be that as it may,” Mal continued. “Zo and ‘Nara gone missing and when those two start plottin’ behind my back I tend to get stuffed in monkey suits and stuck in a wedd’n of some sort. Happened three times so far on this boat, take it as a kindness ‘Tross, if you’d go make sure they aren’t plann’n something.”

River choked and turned colors as she fell out of the tree, Jayne brayed out a laugh over in his corner, and Riddick felt cold dread creeping down his back at the words. Mind gone numb, he let River take his hand and pull him towards the same door the woman had left through earlier. She was still giggling in his head as she pulled him down a hall that smelled of engine grease and the combined scents of the rest of the crew, stopping in front of a hatch set low into the bulkhead.

“They’ve been thinking on sheets,” she whispered between giggles. “And getting the girl’s room tidied so it’s not so obvious Sierra camped there.” She braced one hand on a handle set near the top, kicked at the bottom, and it clanked open. Smiling at him, still laughing and shoving visions of him dressed in a suit towards his mind, she dropped down into the compartment.

And let out a wail.

 

~HHYFN~

 

**Author** **’s Note:**   I tried to cut this chapter in half several times, but they just weren’t having it. Silly crew. Stop talking will ya? Also, I realize there’s a lot of pulling of guns and threatening Riddick with them without anyone actually taking a shot at him. But River’s usually in the way somehow, and I don’t think they want to create more work for Simon if it turns out that they shouldn’t have put holes in the big man rampaging through their boat. I know I’m leaving A LOT unanswered here, but just trust me. There’s a flow to these things, and shoehorning that much exposition into a couple chapters isn’t what I want to do.

I really do need to label parts of this story though. Like in some of the classic novels. Part I: In Which Riddick Discovers a Ship in Space and His Already Discombobulated Life Gets Turned Upside Down, Again. Part II: In Which Our Intrepid Pair Venture Into Space and Try Not to Kill Each Other Before the Sex Happens. I think we’ve arrived at Part III: In Which the Crew of _Serenity_ Wonders What the Fuck They were Thinking When They Brought Him On Board. Whaddya think? Catchy eh?

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 20

_How did you know you were an easy key?_  
You unlocked things I never knew were inside of me.  
Torn in two, our worlds began colliding.  
I was alive, I heard my heart beat.  
  
How did you know you were an easy key?  
You unlocked things I never knew were inside of me.  
You smiled at me, a sun that would not fell me.

                “Killer & a Queen”, Stella **Katsoudas (Sister Soleil)**

Riddick was down the hatch and had landed in the compartment below before he really registered the pain and hurt in River’s voice. Running feet above him told him that some of the others had heard her cry out, but he placed them by weight and smell and ignored them. There was a bit of scuffling, and then the Captain called down “River?”

“It’s ok Sir.” That was Zoe, voice full of humor. “She just got there before we could.”

“What?”

“Just go back to the bridge Mal,” Inara’s voice had a smile in it, and the two women smelled so smug Riddick could practically see it in the air. “We’ll tell you later.”

Boots tromped back to the galley as Mal and Jayne grumbled and muttered under their breath about ruttin’ womenfolk, but Riddick had already tuned them out. His attention was fixed on River, who stood in the middle of the completely empty bunk, hands to her face and eyes huge. A boot on his shoulder made him look up, and he glared at Zoe as she tried to toe him out of the way. He moved aside with a low growl, wishing for his blades and wondering where they’d been stashed. She ignored the rumble in his chest as she moved past him and reached for River. Inara followed, and he couldn’t figure out the smirk she was wearing before she too, enveloped the girl in her arms. “We’re so sorry _mei mei_. We didn’t know we’d hid it that well. And we didn’t know Mal would let you go so soon.”

Still rumbling, Riddick stepped forward and reached for River in his mind. She wasn’t there, not really, and a trickle of running water showed him that she was digging through the minds of the women instead of paying attention to him. Her gasp and the sudden roil of silk and mint that flooded his nose didn’t clear matters up any. ::River?:: His animal dropped down to the stream and eyed it carefully, as if there were poisonous snakes that might strike from the water. ::Mind telling me what’s going on?::

She dropped, boneless, and the women helped her find a seat on the edge of the bed as Riddick lunged to catch her. Zoe turned and planted a hand in his chest, but her eyes weren’t the hard threat he’d been expecting. It was the same look she’d been giving him earlier, and something was tugging at the corners of her mouth as she braced herself against his weight. “Calm down. She’s all sorts of fine. Like ‘Nara said, didn’t expect her to find the surprise so soon is all. Planned to be wait’n for y’all.”

Riddick growled, but quit trying to get past her. “What surprise? Showing her a gutted room, like you gave up on her? That supposed to be good?”

The Companion sighed and leaned her head against River’s. “Men,” she muttered, as if that should explain everything.

River giggled and stood so she could wrap her arms around Zoe and squeezed so hard the woman lost her breath. “Don’t know how to repay you. Would offer to watch Sierra forever, but since the whole crew does that…” She laughed and turned to give Inara the same treatment. “Love you both forever for this!” And she was off, grabbing Riddick by the arm as she passed, and scrambling up the ladder like a monkey.

The big man stopped at the base, watched her climb, and then turned to glare at the women who far too happy with themselves. They took one look at his face and burst out laughing, and he growled as he waited for them to stop holding each other up and give him some sort of explanation. He tracked River with his mind and found her running through the ship, joy rippling through her, before she slammed up a wall with a teasing ::Have to see for himself!::

“We-we-” Inara clapped her hands over her mouth and tried to calm herself down. He was starting to see where River got her habit of trying to laugh and talk at the same time.

Zoe was having more luck. She was wiping tears from her eyes, and he could smell deep rooted sorrow under the mirth for a moment before she stood and brushed herself off. “We know a thing or two about pairings that just don’t look right on the surface. The menfolk on this boat may be [_ch_ _í_ __ _d_ _ù_ _n_](http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=stupid), and the Doc especially where women are concerned, but it really don’t take much figuring to see what you two are to each other.”

Riddick snorted and kept his doubts to himself on that score as he looked over at the Companion, just now getting herself under control. “’Sat so?”

The elegant woman nodded and chuckled. “A year and a half Mal and I danced around each other. He tells me Zoe spent more time looking for ways to drive Wash off the ship the first eight months he was aboard than she did looking at the man under the horrible shirts and, so I hear, mustache.” She shook her head and stood, smoothing her dress with careful fingers. “There’s not a one of us on this boat who would have ever guessed we’d end up marrying who we did. Those scars,” she reached out to touch his arm gently, but didn’t try to trace the still healing cut. “Those are as good as vows. River never has been…” she trailed off and shrugged.

“Anything like anyone else,” Zoe finished for her. “Why would the man she picked be any different?” She leaned a hip against the tiny dresser and grinned at the confusion Riddick knew was plastered all over his face. Was River’s mind reading contagious? Or did they just all know each other that well? Zoe was still talking, oblivious to the thoughts chasing themselves through his mind. “For one thing, you’ll never fit on this bed, shoulders like yours, much less the both of you living in this glorified closet. It was never meant for a main crewmember after all. Smaller than the rest, but River said she liked it that way. She don’t spend much time in here anyways, truth to tell.”

Inara was grinning as she placed her hands on his shoulders, and Riddick found himself being turned around and shoved him gently back towards the ladder leading up to the hall. How the hell did every woman on this ship manage to reach right past his defenses and push him around like this? “We made up the bed in the first shuttle,” the woman was saying. “We tend to keep it there for the girls I find for the Training Houses, but we can use the passenger dorms for that from now on.”

“Besides,” Zoe’s lips twitched again and he looked down to find himself three steps up the ladder and no way of knowing how he came to be there. “River ain’t exactly quiet. Not a one of us want to hear our _mei mei_ making those noises. Distance will muffle it a bit.”

Their laughter chased him the rest of the way up the ladder, and Riddick thought it may have been the first time in his life that he actually felt embarrassed about something. A chuckle from the entry to the bridge alerted him to Mal’s presence, and he raised an eyebrow while trying to shut his ears to the mutterings about muscles and _pi gus_ that he could still hear below.

“Used wiles on you, didn’t they?” The Captain took a sip from the mug he was holding and shook his head. “Word to the wise. They only let me think I’m Captain; when it comes time to get shot and all. Ruttin’ women run this ship and don’t think they’ll let you forget it.”

“I heard that,” Inara called up the hatch, and Riddick beat tracks before he could land himself in the middle of another mess.

He followed apples and rain back through the galley, down the hall, glancing in the engine room when he heard the quiet voices of Simon and Kaylee, then on down a set of stairs into a small room set up as a living area. A pair of dark eyes in midtoned skin met his goggles, but the little girl went about straightening pillows and patting blankets into place as she stared at him. He watched her back until he had passed the infirmary, closed up and dark, and gone up another set of stairs. The little girl followed him to the hatch, and he could feel her eyes on him as he traced the increasing scent of silk and minty anticipation out into a cargo bay and up another set of stairs on the starboard side of the boat.

He paused a moment at the landing, looking down on the mix of crates, the odd vehicle hanging from the ceiling, and the free weights and bench tucked under the portside stairs. The ship hummed, and he could hear faint footsteps as her crew moved around, murmured voices, and the pulse of the engines. It had its own smell, this ship, and although he couldn’t name it, he didn’t find himself minding it either. Lived in, like the _Hound_ had been, but more. He had a feeling that the crew of the _Hound_ had tolerated each other, but not been family. Not been like this crew.

And here they were, taking him at face value, all on the word of a slip of a girl who might go batshit insane and kill them all in their sleep one night. Did they realize he could do the same, without needing to go nuts? Fuck, he’d nearly killed most of them at least once so far and had been dead set on kicking the Doc to a pulp not twenty minutes ago. Were they all brain damaged? Was it contagious? What the fuck was wrong with these people that the Captain had more fear of madmen thousands of kilometers away than he did of the murderer standing in the middle of them?

What special sort of crazy did this ship carry, that the first mate and the Captain’s wife plotted to move him in with River without a single word of protest? He’d been expecting something out of these people. Fear, wary looks, even being attacked, and he’d gotten them, but only when he was still nameless and unknown. After that it had been his actions that sparked those responses, and every one of them had stood their ground anyways. Even the Doc and the mechanic. Now that the blind rage was past he could see the man’s point, and while he may never like him, or even want to be in the same room as him again, he _had_ been looking out for his sister. If he’d looked out for Jack like that, if _anyone_ had, would he be here now? Would she be alive?

Shaking his head, still wondering if he’d taken a harder hit to it than he’d thought to make him so complacent, Riddick turned and walked up the final set of steps and into the shuttle. The silk and mint were still drifting in the air; but there was something new as well. Something almost like wet earth and ozone mixed together. Now what?

River was standing in the middle of the ovoid space, arms wrapped around a box and staring at a large bed. He followed her gaze to the bed, and the baskets sitting in the middle of it. There were three, one piled high with cloth, another full of assorted odds and ends, and another stacked with pads of paper and other bits of drawing paraphernalia. Dark eyes met his, and she managed a smile. “Here lay her worldly belongings,” she whispered. “Most of them. Her weapons are hidden from little fingers. Off ship gear stashed till she needs it.” She smiled and set the box she was holding down at her feet. He noticed it in an absent sort of way; it was an intricate thing covered in and inlay made of various woods in a geometric pattern that would put some of the stuff he’d seen on Helion Prime to shame.

He frowned at her. The silk was still there, but so were tears and wet earth. Her mind was still mostly closed off from his, and even though he’d found the surprise left for them, she wasn’t opening up. Neither the girl nor the weapon were anywhere near the tree or the cave his animal had retreated into as the man took the fore. She didn’t resist though, when he paced over to her and ran a hand up her arm. “More than I ever had,” he said. “Even in Strikeforce.”

She gave him a watery smile and reached for the nearest basket, setting it to the side and letting her hair fall over her face in a curtain as she turned away from him. The movement sent a small draft of her scent towards him, and he caught the blood again and frowned. ::River?:: He pushed the thought at her as gently as he could. ::Gotta open up.::

She shook her head and reached for the next basket. “This was Inara’s shuttle, when she first came to the ship. Paid rent. Forbade the Captain from entering uninvited.” She flashed a grin his way and if it hadn’t been for her scent and the wall in her mind, he would have believed it was real. “He did anyways. Said she’d never service crew either.”

“She was a whore?” Riddick snatched the basket, this one full of things like hairbrushes and toiletries, from her hands and set it behind him. She glared, and reached for the last one, but he caught her hand and turned her towards him.

“Not a good word on _Serenity_. Captain Daddy may shoot you. Inara may attempt poisoning. Kaylee will throw engine parts if you try to enter her domain.”

He refused to be distracted, although he gave her points for trying. Instead he raised an eyebrow and waited. She rolled her eyes. “Companion. Trained from very young age in many arts, not just sex. Counselor when needed, mediator sometimes. Everything she did was supposed to be art.” River took her hands from his and backed up two steps towards the middle of the room before coming up on her toes. “Music,” she paused, arms outstretched, then reached for the ceiling with her leg and the deck with her hand. “Dance.” She came up, brought her foot down, and leapt straight in the air, flinging both legs in opposite directions as her arms followed, and Riddick’s animal growled in appreciation as it emerged from its cave to watch. The wave of her scent reached them, and it sneezed a bit at the blood in it, but didn’t take its eyes off her, even though her mind was still closed to them. She was standing flatfooted now, staring at him, and he wondered how he’d ever not wanted her living in his mind. The fact that she wasn’t sitting with his animal or by the newly formed stream was unnerving as hell and he pushed the feeling towards her as consistently as he could.

“Now she is seeker of new girls for the Training Houses,” River was speaking is if she couldn’t hear a thing he was thinking, coming back to the bed and stretching out a hand for the last basket.

He pulled it away before she could get to it and set it with the others, grinning and hoping it would provoke her. It worked. She aimed a kick at his leg, which he dodged. “She is able to carry things! Is not completely useless!”

That brought him up short. “What?”

She crossed her arms and glared at him. “You heard her.”

The animal rumbled protest and the man shook his head. She wasn’t giving him anything to go on here and he realized he’d gotten so used to being able to take a read on her mind that the scent clues were only telling him half the story. Riddick groaned and ran his hands over his head. “River…” he trailed off. He could hear people moving around in the ship, Jayne was down in the cargo bay, the little girl in the common room was singing softly, and he realized that he had left the hatch on the shuttle open.

“No more run of the ship,” she whispered sadly, and his animal pricked up its ears. At least she was still picking things out of his mind. Riddick mulled that over as he turned to find the doorpad for the hatch. He made sure it was shut and locked before finding the lights and bringing them down to less painful levels. River waited, still as a statue behind him, while he pulled off his goggles and set them on the small couch someone had managed to get in here.

“No,” he said quietly as he turned and caught her hand so he could pull her over. “Not so much.” She didn’t resist when he sat and arranged her in his lap so she was facing him. Apprehension had drowned out the silk and mint, and the blood was more obvious here. He laid his arms along the back of the couch and watched her, waiting. She stared back at him, more uncomfortable with each passing second, and in his head the animal snorted and laid its head on its paws. It could be patient. The prey had to poke its head up at some point.

“Has the Riddick sired progeny?”

She won.

“What?!” If she hadn’t been sitting on him and he hadn’t been enjoying it so much, he might have set records for how high a person could shoot up in the air from a seated position. As it was, he jerked in place and went stiff as a board in shock. Frantic, he searched her face and her scent and even her closed off mind for some inkling of where it had come from; for hidden laughter and _any_ indication that it was a joke. All he came up with was even more apprehension, worry, and something he couldn’t place but was definitely _not_ a happy feeling. Foreboding maybe.

“She has asked-“

“Heard ya the first time.” He clenched his hands and then, deliberately, tried to force the tension and shock out of his body. It was only a partial success. “Where the fuck did that come from?”

“Will you just answer?” She was getting irritated now, which was better than whatever she’d been before, but he was still having trouble wrapping his mind around the question.

“Why?”

She smacked him, and bit of steel rammed its way up his nose. He snorted, surprised, and eyed her warily. “Fuck River, hell if I know.” He reached up to take her shoulders. “Why?” He was growling now, surprise and no little fear still rushing through his veins.

She looked down at her hands where they played with the edges of his shirt. “She is trying to decide.”

That was it. He was sick and fucking tired of the wall keeping him from telling what was really going on. :: _River_ ,:: slamming a fist into the barrier she’d thrown up between them, and the girl shuddered in his grip. ::Open the fuck up and tell me what the _fuck_ is wrong!:: The man was still looking for a way to break in or climb over, while the animal crouched, ready to attack whatever it was that had their girl so tied up in knots.

The girl stiffened, and then crumpled forward as she let the walls down and the man and animal stumbled inside. She waited, panting, as they sifted through the surface thoughts and on down to the roiling tempest below.

Her voice was small when she spoke just as he thought he’d found the tiny nugget of doubt in the middle of all the turmoil. “Is she really the match? Is she? Cries and weeps and loses her mind. Hormones out of balance, forever out of balance! Now she bleeds and they are worse! She has no amygdala, no way to control it!” She was gasping between words now, and he could feel hot tears soaking his shirt. “Simon may not think it wise to mess with them anymore. Has never been on birth control. Does not know if it would help or hinder!”

He froze with his hands buried in her hair and pushed the animal aside so the man could process the implications of that statement for a moment. He latched onto the one part of the rant he knew he could answer, whatever the rest of it might mean in the long term. Gently as he could he forced her head up so she would meet his eyes. “What the fuck River?” He dropped one hand so he could pull her hips closer, savoring her scent as it wound its way up his nose, blood and all. It was River’s after all. She whimpered, and her fingers clenched in his shirt. ::What the fuck makes you think I’d want to give you up?::

::Words,:: she muttered, and tears dripped down her face and ran over his hand where it cupped her jaw.

::There are no words for this. Not in any language.:: He stretched, still not sure how he did it, the animal lending primal strength to the calculations of the man and both reaching for the girl and her weapon half. They pulled, dragging the two up out of the stream and onto the bank. Voices and thoughts, even the emotions of the crew echoed around them until River walled them out, focused her entire being on Riddick and his surroundings. Only it wasn’t Riddick next to the girl-weapon. It was the man; calculation and planning, forethought and memory. He stood, naked but for his wit and intellect, and surveyed her with cool eyes. She wondered if these were the eyes he’d had before, before he’d woken up in slam with a woman talking in his head and the ability to see in the dark. Brown, dark and deep, they examined, assessed, and evaluated.

Beyond, past the tree with its wide roots and even wider branches, an animal paced and snarled into a cave. Black spots showed against dark fur, hints and teases at depths unknown to those who lived in light. River moved instinctively towards it, even though the weapon tried to hold her back. The beast turned, drawn by the motion, and hissed in anger. She jumped in surprise. This was not her jaguar. This was not her animal; the one that lay next to her in the tree and allowed her liberties with its body that would have gotten others killed. This was feral, unthinking, unreasoning rage. This was the need to kill anything that got between it and what it wanted, because it wouldn’t accept anything less. Because it hurt too much to do anything more.

::This was me. Not a month ago.:: Chocolate and coffee warmed to perfection drizzled over her consciousness, and both the weapon and the girl stopped their struggle to bask in it. ::So fucking pissed at everything that I was ready to kill anyone who crossed me. Generally did too.:: The man set his hands on her shoulders and held her still as the animal paced closer, eyes hot with rage. ::I’d lost everything. Caroline, Imam. Jack turned into Kyra and then she went and got herself killed too. All on account of me.::

The girl-weapon twisted to look up at the man, but he was staring at the animal, lips pulled back and brown eyes glaring as the two stepped away from her and closer to each other. A hole opened up in the ground between them, deep and dark, big enough to hold the animal but not to let it move once it was down there. The man spoke without looking back, and the animal growled at the sound. ::Took the animal, everything that had softened me up and made me take the stupid risks and pull shit I shoulda never done or lived through, stuffed it down. :: The hole vanished and the giant cat snarled again at the man before turning its attention back to the girl-weapon. The man stayed where he was, eyes implacable as he watched the hunter and the prey.   ::Left me with the rage. Coming out of everything I did or said. Sent the Necros to their deaths, I hope. Ran the other direction. Never wanted another person to see me with anything but fear again.::

The animal leapt, blind with bloodlust and claws unsheathed. The girl wasn’t where she’d been. She slipped sideways and down, spinning on one heel as she crouched to avoid the attack. The animal landed and turned to follow, great chunks of metaphorical ground being tossed into the air as the claws dug and flung. The girl made a leap of her own, driving one of her bladed hands into the shoulder of the animal and coming to land astride its back. It roared; but the girl had latched on with arms and legs and hands and knees, plastering herself to it. Blades rose from her body, drove themselves deep into the animal, and melded with it. Snarling and hissing, it sank to its belly as the girl merged with it, and a little of the rage and hate left its eyes. The man watched from where he crouched, waited until the girl-weapon had sunk the entirety of herself into the beast, and then looked up at the slim young woman at his side. ::I ain’t tamed. Not gone soft. But you got under my skin girl. Got under it and it pissed me off so much I pulled the animal out of its hole and tried to scare the shit out of you with it when I gave you my memories.::

River laughed and crouched down next to him, reaching a hand to trace the line of his leg from hip to knee. The animal rose from the stream bank, shook itself out, and padded over to them. River nearly lost her balance when it bumped at her shoulder with its head, and the man steadied her before reaching out to lay a hand between its ears. ::This is what you’ve done River. I’m…me again. Always be violent. And never really be nice. But I can feel.:: Brown eyes met brown and a smile tugged at the edges of the man’s mouth. ::Woke me earlier, when all that was left was the animal and it didn’t understand a word of what was going on around it. Got me shut down when we merged and I was gonna kick your brother to pieces.::

The man’s hand sank into the head of the animal and the girl watched as they shifted, melted, and stood again. Animal eyes in a face just as dark as the fur had been met those of the bladed girl, silver flash to steel edges, and he reached to pull her to her feet. ::Can’t give you words out loud for this. Nothing explains it.:: And he wrapped her in his arms and she felt herself going. Heat burned, singed and made the steel of her body run. It slipped around him, puddled at his feet, and encased him. He was softening, his own body losing shape and cohesiveness and all of a sudden she could _feel;_ as if everything she’d ever thought she felt was just an echo of the truth, like Plato’s perfect world.

It wasn’t love. That was a word that couldn’t apply. It would never apply. It was the deep rooted certainty that together they made a whole. A single being that stood before the tsunami and was not swept away or drowned. She gave him something he’d lost, and he wasn’t even sure how many years he’d been walking around with a crippled soul. He only knew that without her, without the things that made her who she was, he would go right back to the creature he’d been when they met. But _with_ her, he could become something more. Not just himself, but a man worthy of the girl who’d pulled him back to his own version of sanity.

The knowledge burned itself into her mind, seeped through the cracks, and found the spring at the center of her being. Steam boiled up in clouds as he poured certainty down to the very foundations of her soul, refusing to let her go, refusing to give her up. The girl gasped and clung, accepted the gift and making it a part of herself. She could hear voices somewhere, thumping hearts and running feet. But she pushed them aside, walling off the worry and fear in favor of the calm and dedication wrapped around her. She drifted, locked in arms and covered by the warmth of the animal, and for once, she didn’t need words.

 

 

~HHYFN~

 

**Author** **’s Note:** So. Totally wasn’t planning on this in the big scheme of things, but it’s one of my fav chapters so far. I wanted to show that while Riddick has been playing the part of River’s anchor to sanity and calm, she’s got something to bring to the table as well. It’s a partnership of equals after all, and he has changed lots in 20 chapters. And I hope to keep the character development going. I almost cut the story off here in fact, and started a new one under a new title for what comes next. But I figured what the heck. It’s all one long story line, working towards a single goal. So let the chapters keep on rolling!

 

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 21

_If I had one wish_  
_Well I don't know what I’d wish for_  
 _But if I had a million zillion wishes_  
 _I'd use one to let you know that gibberish is_  
 _Not a nice way to talk to all your friends_

“Gibberish”, Relient K

 

 

There were hands and bodies and smells that had no business being where they were. River could feel them. Worry, fear, some anger; and a great deal of curiosity rose and fell like waves as people jostled and shoved and tried to crowd into a space not meant for more than three or four. She groaned into Riddick’s shoulder and wished briefly for some sort of incendiary device. Something lethal. Lacking that, she’d settle for something to throw, wrenches maybe. Those seemed to work.

“The girl wonders if the Captain Daddy knows how rude it is to enter unasked,” she muttered into the warm skin beneath her mouth. Cracking her eyes open nearly got them seared them out of their sockets as blue light pulsed in time with a heartbeat that was slowly rising. Beneath her, Riddick rumbled as his consciousness came back to his body and his nose and ears told him what she already knew. River continued without giving her Captain a chance to speak. Not that he could. His mind had shut down in shock, and words just weren’t coming to him right now. “And it is even more rude to stare.” She sat up and twisted around so she could glare at the crew gathered in the shuttle. They were, to a man, gape mouthed and round eyed. She sighed.

::River.::

Turning back to Riddick, she raised an eyebrow and tried to keep her face composed. His mind was a turmoil of embarrassment and anger, leavened with a touch of self-deprecation. His face was blank, eyes closed against the lights of the shuttle. And against the light his body was giving off. His hands on her hips tightened, and his animal fed her the scent of apples and rain, but with more of the old blood covering it. She’d have to get that taken care of soon. Very soon.

::I’m going to kill them all. You love any of them, better try and stop me.::

In for a penny, in for a pound. River groaned again and dropped her head to his shoulder. She’d known explanations as to their bond would be in order eventually. The crew had been so distracted earlier that they hadn’t realized the implications of it. And then, about the time she’d expected them to start questioning it, questioning him, Riddick had caught that bit of _go se_ from Simon and all logical thought had flown right out the metaphorical windows. She didn’t know if she should be grateful or not that the inevitable confrontation had been over with so quickly. She was just glad that she’d managed to get the animal shut down before he tore her brother to pieces. This was not how she’d envisioned her homecoming.

She had hoped to control the circumstances of this discussion as well. As it was, she was just glad that none of the crew could gather themselves enough to start in with the shouting she knew was coming. “She may help you. After all,” she pulled herself out of his grip and stood “They were never invited into the shuttle in the first place.”

“Been eight hours,” Mal croaked. “Figured-” he stopped, shook his head, rubbed his hands over his face in disbelief. River ignored him in favor of helping Riddick up off the couch. Not that he needed it. But it was an excuse to be touching him, and it kept her close in case he really _did_ decide to kill them all. She really couldn’t blame him. A skim of the minds around her told her that the Captain spoke truth. How long had they drifted? Or had the entire encounter taken far less time in their heads than in the physical?

She caught sight of a pair of dark eyes in milky brown skin and sighed. “Sierra.”

Zoe picked up her daughter and nodded. “She wanted to get you. Complaining about you missin’ her birthday an’ all.”

The glow was dimming a bit as Riddick rolled his head back along his shoulders and took deep breaths to try and slow his heart and get the emotions they’d opened between them a bit more under control. She could still feel them, raw and alive in her awareness, and the cut on her arm pulsed in time with his heartbeat. She gave a mental caress to the ears of the jaguar and shoved past her crew to get to the light switch.

“Just for that,” she called over her shoulder. “The birthday present will have to wait until another time.” She brought the lights down to their dimmest setting, ignoring the mutters of surprise and protest from her family. “Safe now,” she told Riddick, and he opened his eyes to glower at the people gathered in front of him.

“One. Fucking. Word,” he growled. “Just say it.”

The response that sparked in the crew’s collective mind made River clap a hand over her mouth to keep the giggles in, and he shot her a glare. She didn’t get a chance to reply though, because Sierra wiggled around in her mother’s grasp, reached for him with both arms, and said “Pretty!”

River howled. Her legs went out from under her and she sat down hard, holding her ribs and not doing a thing to stop it. Riddick snarled at her in his mind, but his focus was still on the crew. Simon had a hand over his mouth, and River could hear his mind churning through the possibilities. Kaylee was staring in fascination, and the girl shied away from the mechanic’s direction of thought. Really, she was as bad as a man sometimes. Zoe was trying to fight a smile as she pulled Sierra away from the angry Furyan and River was glad. The woman with a stone heart had smiled very little in the past few years.

Jayne was looking from the faintly glowing man to the girl laughing on the floor and privately decided that they deserved each other. When He caught her eye she winked at him and thought very deliberately that the day Mal asked him to take the big guy on was the day he jumped ship and found a new berth. Not enough money in the word to make him go up against a man who could hold his own with the Moonbrain, and that blue shit was just plain weird. The thought sent River off in a fresh spate of giggles; and she couldn’t seem to stop herself, even when Riddick stalked over and crouched to glare at her. The glow was mostly gone, just the lip and handprint gleaming with residuals, and his eyes flashed blue in the last bits of light. Growling, her man scrubbed his hands over his face and sighed. “River, will ya shut up?”

She flapped a hand at him. ::Can’t!::

“What the gorram hell is going on?” Mal had found his voice, and it was an even mix of shock and wonder as it reached heights great enough to crack glass. River winced in sympathy for Riddick’s ears and the man turned to stare at the Captain.

::Might as well answer.:: She was still laughing too hard to speak in words. ::They were going to found out eventually.::

Riddick growled again and looked over at the gathered crew. They were still staring, and the curiosity rolling off of them was enough to drown all his senses. He prodded River again with his mind, annoyed at the fact that there was growing humor in those faces. “Girl, will you get a hold of yourself?”

She gasped and reached for his hands and he pulled her up to her feet. She was still giggling, but making an attempt to get it under control. “Furyan,” she force out finally. “Alpha. King among his people.” She ignored him when he rumbled out a protest and leaned against him for support.

Disbelief now, on the crew’s faces, and no few raised eyebrows. Riddick sighed to himself and maneuvered her over to the bed so she could sit and he wouldn’t be tempted to stick her in a chokehold just to get her to stop laughing at him. She grinned in his head and tugged on the animal’s tail before retreating at high speeds. He glared and crossed his arms, refusing to be distracted from the situation at hand.

“Furyan,” Simon repeated, just so he could be sure he’d heard it right. “Nobody on Fury-“

Riddick snarled, and River reached for his hand. “Not Fury. _Furya._ Last of the Exodus from Earth-That-Was found a different set of stars. Adapted. Became new. Different”

Riddick was eyeing her warily in his head as he stood next to the bed and watched the people squinting in the dim light. The last of the glow was gone, and he could feel heart rates rise as they tracked him by his eyes and the shadowed shape of his bulk. It was the Doc who spoke up, apparently he was a little more immune to the effect River could have on people. “River, evolution takes-“

“Probably aided by science.” The girl looked up at Riddick and he could feel the seriousness in her mind, even though her voice was still bordering on laughter. A brief vision of UV-6 and T-2 flashed through his head, followed by the jungles full of headstones. “Some worlds very harsh after all,” she finished.

Riddick ran his hands over his head and surveyed the crew with eyes and nose and ears. They were processing it, doubt warring with interest in their faces and their scents. The Doc looked like he was calculating odds, Jayne just looked flat puzzled, and the women all had varying degrees of assessment in their eyes. He didn’t know if he liked that, and pushed at River to see if she’d give him her read of them. All he got was a flash of embarrassed humor and frustration before she shoved him away from those thoughts. The animal laid its ears back, and the girl stomped her foot at the base of the tree. ::Leave her alone on this! She is angry enough already about it.::

He snorted as he put the pieces together. ::The women on this crew are a bunch of lechers girl.::

:There have been plots to steal towels and force the menfolk to walk naked through the ship,:: she replied, and he could feel the embarrassment roll of her body as burnt sugar and old blood filled his nose. He wanted to laugh, but the blood was becoming an itch he couldn’t scratch. The crew still hadn’t said anything, and River had clamped her mouth shut, leaving the rest to him.

He poked her gently in the shoulder to remind her that there would be consequences later, and spoke up. “Ain’t a king. Furyans are all as good as dead anyways. Just want to be free.” He caught a minute jerk in the Captain’s face, and Zoe’s had closed down like a stone wall. He could see how River had decided her nickname.

“Then Necromongers came and an old friend thought that the Riddick could help.”

Riddick looked down at River, apples and rain and cool water rising with the heat of her body and her voice as serious as it had ever been. The crew was giving off more confusion, and he had the sinking feeling that explaining the Necromongers might require the sort of visual aids used on small children. Very graphic visual aids. This day just got better and better. He sat down next to the girl on the edge of the bed and wrapped an arm around her waist. “May as well sit,” he muttered. “You all look like a flock of birds with your mouths open like that.”

Embarrassment, some anger. The Captain snorted and Riddick caught a draft of humor. They rearranged themselves, the Companion and her husband on the couch, Kaylee next to them with Sierra in her lap. Simon took the pilot’s seat at the nose of the little ship, and Jayne and Zoe leaned up against the bulkheads. He noticed that their holsters were unclipped, and approval warred with anger. These were the truly dangerous ones, ready to draw and fire and unwilling to compromise their ability to react quickly. The Captain could be dangerous too, but either he really did trust River’s judgment or he was using these two as a foil for when he had to make a move. Riddick had a feeling it was a mix of both.

“Didn’t give a-“ he caught sight of the set of huge brown eyes in Kaylee’s lap and the glare the woman was shooting him made him bite his tongue on the words he usually used. “Damn about Necromongers coming or worlds ending. Had to happen sometime. But Jack had run off, gone looking for me.”

“Jack?” Inara’s voice was puzzled, and he remembered that neither he nor River had given them much about the girl he’d met so many years ago during the conversation the night before.

“Kyra. Knew her first as Jack. Was traveling as a boy when we crashed…seven years ago now. Give or take.” Riddick shrugged and River twitched next to him, but said nothing. She was seated at the base of the tree with the animal on one side and the man on the other, but she’d clearly decided that she was done enough talking for now. “Left her with the holy man in New Mecca. He was ‘sposed to take care of her. But she ran. Came looking.” He let himself drift a moment, back to a warm night and a room full of strangers, police at the door and Imam’s voice. The accusation in it hadn’t lessened any, and neither had the guilt. The man had known his trade. In his mind, River shook her head and sighed.

“Went after her. Crematoria. Thirty klick band of territory on that planet where a person won’t freeze and shatter or get incinerated by the sun. Maximum security prison under the crust.” A few of the faces tightened at that, and the Captain sat forward, eyes intent. “Gotta kill a few people, get sent a place like that. It’s what she’d planned to do I think. Become me.” Riddick looked down at River, who met his eyes and laid a hand on the man and animal both. Surety radiated from her, and she was tapping into that well in her center to pour calm water over his frustration and anger. He didn’t want to speak on this. Not ever. But she was right. They couldn’t understand until they knew. Bastards.

“How many’s a few?” That was Jayne, and he had that big knife out, turning it over and over in his hands.

Riddick raised an eyebrow, watching the flash of the nearest light, dim as it was, highlight the edge of the weapon. The other man didn’t seem to care, or he couldn’t see the gesture in the low light. Finally the ex-convict shrugged. “For her or me? Me, killed a pretty important bastard. No trial, nothing. Company shipped me off. For her? They slaved her out. Never was much of a girl. Vicious little beast sometimes.” There were frowns and mutters, but truth was still truth. She’d worked so hard on that rep of hers, so much bravado. Slim fingers reached for his where they rested on River’s hip and he pressed his other hand to the bridge of his nose. “So. Went to get her out. It’s what I do best, escape. Knew it was possible. They ain’t built a cell yet that can keep me. Would have worked too, if the Necros hadn’t followed Toombs from Helion.”

The confusion was rising in the air around Kaylee and Simon, but the rest, even Inara, seemed to be putting the pieces together fairly well. “These Necros,” Mal was scratching at his jaw as he tried to make out the two on the bed. Riddick knew it was getting easier the longer they sat in the dim light. “You’ve both made a mention o’ them. Care to elaborate?”

River stiffened, and the water running down the animal’s back and over the man’s arm froze and shattered. The weapon rose up behind her, ready to fight. Riddick squeezed her hand and reached in his head, anchoring her to the tree by simple expedient of having the two halves of his self sit on her. Steel and mint faded from the air, to be replaced by apples and rain, cool water and bit of blood. The animal sneezed. It happened in a microsecond, not long enough for the crew to really notice anything was wrong. “Had it explained to me like this,” Riddick traced his fingers over the girl’s hip and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “They’re an army. Headed across the galaxy and aiming for a nebula cluster of new planets they call Underverse. Every populated planet they find, they attack. You can convert and become one of them, or you can die. They decimate and move on.”

“Convert,” Zoe’s voice was flat, her eyes hard. Rage was rising in her; he was starting to be able to pick the individuals from the group now.

“One pain covers another.” River’s voice was soft, her heart rate was rising slightly, but her scent stayed the same. “Serum anchors the change in the DNA. Don’t feel pain, not in the physical. But the mental… it screams for what they gave up, what they lost. Like Reavers but not. They lie down in spirit, but in the physical they kept walking.”

There was a chorus of general cursing as the crew looked at each other and citrus bloomed in the air. Riddick snorted to try and clear it from his nose and River leaned a little harder into his side. He waited until they were done before continuing. “Last Lord Marshal, he heard a prophecy. A Furyan would be the one to take him down. So he diverted the Armada to Furya. Killed everyone he could find, kids especially. Didn’t offer conversion to very many.” He knew this, not from Aereon or the Purifier or even Shirah. There’d been a record in the archives, and that fucking curiosity of his could only be denied for so long before he’d gone hunting for the Necro side of that particular story. It had been startlingly similar to what Shirah had told him.

“But they missed one,” Simon’s voice was steady, and he was too far away from the bed for Riddick to get an accurate bead on his scent. His breath and heart, they sounded normal enough. He had a feeling though, that the Doc was skeptical about the whole prophecy part. Fuck, he’d been downright pissed about it himself.

“They did.” He didn’t elaborate as to how he’d survived, and gave River a look as she opened her mouth. Some things people just didn’t need to know all at once. “Stuck me in a room with a pile of half dead freaks called Quasi-Dead just before Toombs caught me. They were…Readers I guess. Like River. Pulled things out of my head I didn’t know were there. Sent a Commander to Crematoria to make sure I died.” Riddick lifted one shoulder, then dropped it. “Nearly got me. Sun rising, pile of soldiers with guns and mad as hell that I was about to die.”

River was shaking under his arm, and he caught the wisp of thought as apples and rain bloomed next to him. He growled at her but it was too late. “Walking EMP,” she giggled. “Stopped their hearts.” She sobered. “Nearly stopped his. Nearly fried on the runway.” Dark eyes were glaring up at him, and nothing in her scent or her mind was giving him a clue as to why. He blinked down at her and pushed curiosity her way. She twitched, and grinned. ::He doesn’t fall over any more though. Wonder why that is?::

::I’d run almost forty klicks, climbed a fucking mountain, and fought; all on bad food in bad air and worse rest. You do all that and not fall over at the finish line,:: he snapped, but the question had merit. It was worth exploring later.

“So,” Kaylee was eyeing him with speculation and no small amount of unease. “You and River’ll be staying out of the engine room and bridge when you’re sex’n, right?”

Simon and Mal squawked in outrage. Jayne doubled over, wheezing laughter, and Riddick jerked in place as burnt sugar and heat rose off of the girl next to him. Inara had a hand over her mouth and Zoe’s face was unreadable. River muttered something, so low and half formed that he couldn’t even tell if she meant it to be out loud or not, and he found himself shaking his head. The mechanic was a strange one, but maybe she’d be less trouble than he’d initially thought. Girl had a very entertaining habit of spitting out whatever came to mind. Be interesting to see what she’d say next.

“You lived though, obviously.” Inara’s eyes were dancing through the serious expression on her face, and he knew she was trying to get things back on track. “What happened to Kyra?”

“Yes.” Riddick pinched at the bridge of his nose, rubbing to get rid of an ache that wasn’t entirely physical out of his head. He could still see her eyes as she crossed from the Lord Marshall’s side. Still see her lying there on the throne room flood, bleeding out and promising that she’d always be with him. Cool water gurgled in the stream, and the man and the girl stood ankle deep in it. He could feel it in his nose too, her scent rising and giving him a focus that didn’t have a thing to do with the remembered pain of failure. “Took her chance to live, hopped ship with the Necros. I didn’t know till I saw her in the throne room. Thought I’d lost her on Crematoria. Kept me from getting cut in half. Died for it.” He raised his head and met the eyes of the crew as they took that in. This was more than he’d ever talked on himself at one time, and he just wanted it over and done. Oddly enough, there wasn’t so much pity in their eyes as there was understanding.

 ::We have all lost. The Captain and Zoe in the war, and more recently. Jayne will not speak of what he no longer has. Kaylee may never see her family again, for what she is now that Miranda has made us hunted.:: River’s fingers laced a little tighter with his, and her weapon self laid a hand on the animal’s shoulder. ::They would worry more if you had never had anyone to lose. Or would not admit it.::

He snorted at that, but the scents drifting his way seemed to confirm it. They waited, even the little girl, to see what he’d say next; and he couldn’t remember the last time anyone besides River had wanted him for something not involving killing a pile of people. She giggled softly in his head and he prodded her back. “Necro’s have a rule,” he said finally, trying to figure the quickest way to end this. “You keep what you kill. Kyra, she gave me a chance to get back on my feet. Then the Commander who’d come after me made his play. Drove Zhylaw into my blade.” He shrugged. “Buried it in his head, snapped off the hilt.”

Kaylee was wincing and the Companion looked a little disturbed. It was the Doc that spoke, voice flat, and very few emotional tell tales in his scent. “That explains the Lord Marshall part. And even the…” he hesitated. “Glowing. But what about last night, what Sierra found?”

Riddick eyed the man. Clean cut, but with a five ‘o clock shadow and lines of strain around his eyes and mouth that looked like they’d end up being permanent. The whole crew showed the worry and exhaustion of the past few months in their faces. The skepticism was still thick in the air, along with the unease and wariness. The Doc eyed him back, lips set in a firm line, and the ex-Lord Marshal could see that whatever else he might have been in whatever life he’d had before this one, there was a core of titanium there that served just as well in present day difficulties as it must have when he’d decided that he’d be getting his sister back. Part of him said he could break the man, given enough time and the right leverage. The other part said that to do so would take effort far past the worth of the end result. It might be entertaining to try anyways, but now just wasn’t the time.

::Trauma surgeon.:: River’s fingers traced over his where they rested on her hip. ::Need a cool head. Fast mind. Triage the body. It has served him well in the Black, since the girl has become better than she was, and not just for when the crew needs stitching.:: She looked up at him. ::He worries now. Not just for what we have brought to this corner of space, of the horror that may be unleashed. He worries that you have contaminated me somehow.:: Her voice was sour, and her lips twisted. ::Thinks you a bad influence.::

Riddick snorted out a laugh before he could stop it, and the crew stiffened. River growled her kitten growl and poked him in the ribs. “Not funny.” But her lips were twitching as she caught his humor. He grabbed for the hand and shook his head in amusement.

The Doc stood and crossed his arms, jaw set. “I would agree. I fail to find the humor in any of this.”

“C’mon Doc,” Jayne had put the pig sticker away and his eyes were dancing. “Gotta admit, your sis, taking up with a man what glows blue? You ever think she’d find a _normal_ man?”

That set off a round of chuckles in the others, and the Captain shook his head as he levered himself to his feet, then reached to help Inara up. “Got a point there. Our girl, she’s never done a thing by halves.”

Simon was still glaring at the pair on the bed. “River.” His voice was low, warning; Riddick stopped laughing and glared at the man.

Next to him, the girl sighed. “Not contamination Simon. Not the way you think.” The rest of the crew stilled, eyes jumping from one to the other of the participants in this little cold war. “Bond.” She lifted her arm and turned it over so he could see the gash that stretched from elbow to wrist. “He is Furyan. I am what I am. Together we are…more.” She glanced up at Riddick, buried her hand in the fur at the back of the animal’s neck, and slipped the other into the broad palm of the man’s. “What Sierra found was-” she shrugged helplessly in the face of her brother’s increasingly stony demeanor. Riddick rumbled a growl deep in his chest, but the other man’s gaze didn’t even flicker his direction. The eyes of the rest of the crew did, but only for a moment.

“Doesn’t matter.” River stood in one fluid motion and went to stand in front of her brother. “It is ours. Us.” She leaned up so she could look him in the eye and Riddick stood as well, fists clenched. Along the wall, the three main guns of the crew had their hands on their holsters, but the weapons had stayed where they belonged. If River noticed, she ignored it. Steel and cool water had drowned out all the other scents, even the incense from Inara, and her heart and breath were steady.

Simon frowned and reached for his sister’s hands. “River.” He turned over the arm with the bond mark and traced a finger down it. River shuddered in his grip but didn’t fight, and a hand on the shoulder of the animal in his head told Riddick to stay where he was. The man shifted on his feet where he stood among spreading roots at the base of the tree but obeyed. “River, how?”

She shrugged. “It is unknown, how it is possible. But belief is not required. Belief or disbelief does not make it more or less real. It _is_. And the promise still stands.” Steel in the air now, and it took everything Riddick had to keep his feet in place so he wouldn’t go and lend his bulk to her glowering. She twitched in his head, and cool water gurgled in the stream below the tree as the waters rose. “We can still go. If she decides to stay, he will stay. If he decides to leave rather than stay and possibly kill you all for looking at him cross eyed, then the girl with go with him.”

“Well then,” Mal crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Riddick. River turned away from her brother to look at the Captain, and Riddick felt interest coming off of her as the steel in the air faded a little. The Captain still had a bit of citrus in his pores, but the majority of his scent had returned to base, with just a hint here and there of watchfulness and determination. “So long as he doesn’t try to kill us all in our sleep, a thing which I’d appreciated some warn’n of by the way ‘Tross,” the man reached for her shoulder as she paced over to stand next to him. Not,” and he pointed a finger at Riddick. The big man lifted a lip and River giggled. The Captain glanced down at her before sighing and dropping his hand “Not saying I understand. Not saying I want to. Wise man told me once ta believe this girl. That’s what we’re gonna do.” He leveled a flat look at the Doc, who glared right back. “’Preciate it if you all would stop gawping like a bunch of fish and get back ta your jobs. Got an hour till we hit dirt and myself, I’m right glad to have someone ‘sides me to land this boat.”

“Sir,” Zoe levered herself up from the wall where she’d been leaning. “I think I speak for us all when I say we never want you landin’ this thing again.”

River slipped over to Riddick in the midst of the laughter that statement brought, and he felt her settle down on the stream bank as she tucked herself under his arm. The Doc was still giving her that stony look, and the speculation in the Companion’s eyes was more than a bit interesting. He poked at River, asking for her read on them, but all she would give him as the rest of the crew stood and headed out of the shuttle for their duties was a sense of loss from Simon, and something like measurements from Inara.

He blinked and looked down at the girl and she shrugged as she grinned up at him. ::Will have to wait and see.:: Her face fell though, as Simon brushed by her. Riddick caught anger in his scent, and something flat like stale water. ::He is trying to resign himself to the loss of his sister,:: she murmured. ::It will take time. And he hasn’t really lost the girl. Not yet. But they must share.:: Riddick growled, but didn’t complain when she elbowed him in the ribs and steered him out the hatch behind the Doc. ::Need to come to bridge with her. Show you how Serenity flies. Maybe have you help Kaylee in engine room when we break atmo on way out. Must show you _Serenity_ _’s_ quirks after all.::

He grumbled, but allowed himself to be led. Not as if he hadn’t planned to follow her anyways.

 

~HHYFN~

 

 **Author** **’s Note:** Thanks ever so for all the favs and follows and reviews and reading you all are doing. Love it! Love you all! This here is just a bit more housekeeping. Cause hey, who wouldn’t have questions for the big scary man what glow BLUE?

As always, Serenty/Firefly and the Riddick verse are not mine. Wish they were. But they aren’t. Boo.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

Ch. 22

 

 

_Well I’m not paralyzed_  
_But, I seem to be struck by you_  
_I want to make you move_  
_Because you’re standing still_  
_If your body matches_  
_What your eyes can do_  
_You’ll probably move right through_  
_Me on my way to you_  
_“Paralyzer”, Finger Eleven_

 

 

“Now, I know you’re out of practice ‘Tross. Ain’t gonna crash my ship are ya?”

River twisted just far enough in her seat to give Mal a _look_ before going back to the controls and the atmosphere that roiled around them. Her Captain grinned at her, and she could feel his amusement and confidence as it washed over her mind. Behind her Riddick was a warm block of muscle and interest as he latched onto a handle in the ceiling and leaned over her shoulder to watch. His jaguar was draped over the branches of the tree, eyes slitted as it kept its attention on Mal, but the man was focused on what she was doing. He’d tilted his head to look at the Captain when he spoke, but ignored him once he’d established that the man wasn’t serious.

River could have told him that, even passed on her impressions, but she was a bit busy _not_ crashing a ship that had not been taken care of very well for the past four months. It shook around them as they passed through the layers of gasses wrapped around the planet below, and there was a rumble in the engine that didn’t sound promising. “ _Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiouh doh sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo_!” She snarled at the Captain. “Did you let Kaylee do anything for her hurts?”

Mal snorted and edged over to the intercom. “Sure. Set down for repairs. Once.” Guilt and anger rolled off him, and he was thinking of all the time spent looking, trying to keep in work and in repair at the same time, and failing at all three. Now they were landing again, with no cargo and few prospects of work on a planet with so many people and such a strong Alliance presence that the smartest thing for them to do would probably be to fuel up and turn right back around. But they needed the cover and she knew it, knew that Blue Sun and the Alliance would be looking for anything abnormal about the behavior of a certain Firefly class ship. They were lucky in that they _had_ been here before, several times. It wasn’t going to stand out so much as it would if they were to set down on say, Londinium.

The strongest thing Hibal had going for it at the moment was that it had been the closest place to aim for on leaving Persephone. Closest at least, that didn’t land them too near families to be put in danger. Maybe they could scare up a cargo. River shook herself out of her Captain’s thoughts and made her mind her own again but for the presence of a very quiet, very watchful Furyan. He shifted, both in the physical and the mental, as he caught the drift of her thoughts, and she wished she had time to truly bask in the feeling of his interest1. But the port side thruster was fighting her and she could spare only a moment to acknowledge him before going back to struggling with the ship.

She growled and reached for the comm. “Kaylee! Bring her down. Jets now!” River tossed the com back over her shoulder and hid a smile at Riddick’s grunt of displeasure. It had nearly hit him in the face, and he was fighting for balance after having let go of his anchor to duck. He growled in her head and she grinned back in hers. Her match needed to be kept on his toes after all, and she’d discovered that objects propelled through air at high speeds tended to do a fine job of that. He caught the thought and projected an image of her upcoming punishment, vivid and detailed, into her brain. She knew she stank of vanilla and mint now, and her body was heating were she sat. Mal was eyeing the two of them like they might start something right there and she laughed at the horror he was giving off.

The punishment would have to wait though. She still had at least three or four more days to go of her menses, and the frustration might just kill her if the Alliance didn’t catch them first. It wasn’t the run of the ship, but the trust implied by the shuttle was worth more to her than anything she could imagine. The fact that Riddick hadn’t gutted her crew yet was worth almost more. She was slightly amazed actually, at how well he was taking all of this.

She knew, of course, that he was biding his time. Waiting, assessing, looking for weak points to exploit. It was a thing he’d never stop doing, not even with her. Eventually he’d make a move, one way or another, and time would only tell which way it would be. She hoped he’d make the choice to graft himself in, to choose to become a part of the ship as she had. But if he didn’t, if he decided that all of this was something he wouldn’t submit too, she knew the direction she’d pick. It would hurt, but she would do it.

She also knew that she was in trouble for more than just the comm unit. Their conversation from earlier was still percolating through his mind, and eventually it would have to be dealt with. Sooner rather than later if Simon didn’t feel that injections or pills were the right way to go with the birth control. They’d been tossing the possibilities back and forth for a couple of years now. She’d never been regular after all. But seeing as she hadn’t been active in a way that would bring about babies and given the overpowering embarrassment on Simon’s part, they’d never moved forward with any plans. Her deep and abiding aversion to needles had been another major factor in her stalling, but the decision couldn’t be put off much longer. River shook her head and walled that section of thought off a little tighter as Riddick caught the shift in her scent and gave her a mental poke. It was an all too obvious reminder that there was no avoiding the issue now.

For her part, she liked children. Sierra was a joy. Minds uncomplicated, emotions simple, they were a different kind of peace, most of the time. But what would it do to her body? How would she protect herself if she could hardly stand straight, much less fight? And, far more importantly, what was Riddick’s take on the matter? She’d thought his heart would stop when she’d asked him earlier if he’d sired progeny. She knew exactly what he was. A violent man with the temper of a caged animal;and the two of them together attracted more trouble than flies to honey. He didn’t mind kids, but she doubted he’d ever thought about being father.

Ever.

For now though, her family was as whole as it was going to get. Mal had moved on to barking orders through the shipwide and Kaylee was screeching in Mandarin down in the engine room as something popped loose. River eased back on the throttle as they leveled out and felt Riddick turn his ear to the hatch, listening to the little mechanic struggle with the levers and gears. He was straightening, one hand on her shoulder, when River heard Jayne’s mental grumbling and the stomp of his boots down the hall as he went to help. She gave the man at her back a mental nudge, glanced over to where Mal was watching Riddick with speculation in his eyes, and went back to her work. She wondered vaguely when the initial shock would wear off and the prying of the crew would start. It was inevitable as the turning of time that Riddick would start to feel confined at that point and lose his temper in spectacular fashion. Then the real scrutiny would start. She hoped they’d all come out of it in one piece.

They were docked before she had a chance to pay much more attention to anything but the ship and Kaylee’s yelling. She felt Riddick’s interest as she yelled back down the woman and the Captain’s wry humor, but they were distant concerns compared with the finicky process of putting the ship down in a slip the relative size of an ox to a mule. Riddick’s hands tightened on the back of her chair, and the jaguar left off its surveillance of Mal to come up next to the man, hackles raised in alarm. She ignored them all.

:: Landings on this boat always that tight girl?:: Riddick’s face was calm when she turned around, but she knew he was having flashbacks to another ship and a docking pilot that couldn’t get the nose up. She set her hand on the jaguar’s head and stood, feeling skin brush skin as she straightened and stretched. His mind warmed, and she felt the heat coming off him as he watched her. Mal’s mind was giving off revulsion and worry as he turned away and Riddick’s lip curled as he caught the scent on the air.

River sighed to herself. Two dominant males, both with a different claim to her. If she hadn’t been so certain of the outcome she might have contrived to throw them in a hold and let them fight it out barehanded. But that would leave the ship without a Captain and a very large gap in the crew. Two things she really didn’t want. Better to just leave them be and pray that Riddick didn’t decide that her Captain needed a few extra holes in his body.

Slipping under the arm he’d anchored back to the ceiling, River laid her head on Riddick’s chest and listened to his heart beat and his breath as she grinned at her Captain. “Haven’t lost the touch. Was taught very well thank you.” It was meant for both of them, and curiosity and testosterone flooded the air as the two men eyed each other, then her.

Mal shrugged. “Never said you weren’t. Now, get on down to the bunk. ‘Nara and Simon found your things for planetside. Got to resupply the infirmary at least. And let the Doc look at those feet before you go walk’n too much.”

River nodded and headed for the door, pausing to lay a hand on Mal’s shoulder before she passed him. “She picks the next planet though Captain. You must trust her on this.”

He reached up and patted her hand as he sighed. She could feel his resignation and fear of what she’d brought on them this time as a deep pull on the consciousness. She was sorry for it, but all she knew to do was to try and fix the problem. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure if there was any real solution. The war had started again, after Miranda. The Alliance denied it, calling the growing unrest the product of terrorists and isolated groups. Slow, implacable, a thing of raids and bombings scattered over the stars instead of battles and mass casualties. It was there for those with eyes to see, gaining a little more momentum with every year. And every year, it was harder and harder to step around it; to avoid old friends and even older enemies.

Riddick came to stand behind her and laid a hand at the base of her spine, pushing curiosity and his version of worry in her direction. ::River?:: Even in her mind his voice was a comforting rumble, and he could put so much into a single word. Colors and textures danced around the edge of it, warmed as they were by the fire he held deep inside.

She leaned back against his hand, felt the Captain watching carefully, and sighed. “So many apologies Captain. Wars are near impossible to stop.”

He stiffened, eyes going hard and jaw set. Anger and fear and sadness burst from him like a small supernova and River flinched under the onslaught as she clawed her way into Riddick’s tree and let the jaguar lay its head on her knee. Riddick was looking from one to the other, and she knew he was fitting this conversation in with others she’d had, building a picture of the world around them and the man in front of them. There was really only one logical conclusion, but he wasn’t looking for that so much as he was looking for a read of the Captain’s character. And a way out if need be. Always had to have the way out.

::But not from you.::

She hadn’t realized he’d caught that last thought, and giggled at his stupidity. ::Know that. She has learned. She is stuck with him, and he with her. And the universe shall burn before we are taken from each other.::

::Don’t you forget it,:: he growled, before dropping a kiss at the base of her neck and giving her a shove towards the door.

She could feel her Captain’s wonder and slight queasiness before he clamped a lid on his feelings. His curiosity about their behavior as he tried to make sense of it was all that leaked through. He was remembering how to block, not that he’d ever been much good at it.

She was halfway out the hatch when he called “Get your brother to look at those feet first,” before fixing his attention on the big man in front of him.

Jayne was on his way into the bridge as she left, and he dropped a hand on her shoulder so he could turn her to face him before she made it all the way past him. A quick searching look, for new bruises and signs of true abuse, and he nodded before giving her a little shake and moving on. She grinned at his back, caught Riddick’s goggled gaze, and held back a laugh as she continued on her way.

They thought they had him cornered. They’d be trying, in little subtle ways, without even realizing it, to assert their prior claim on her affections as sister or daughter. Little did they know that the Alpha had no _need_ for those games. Who would, if they were always going to come out on top of the pack? Why should he worry? He knew what he could do and who she would choose.

He’d play his own games, making them think he was responding to their prodding and taunts. And all the while, he’d be learning a little more, getting increasingly interesting reactions from them. She sent her amusement his way as the other two began their posturing, using the excuse of planning planetside chores as their cover. He sent back a mental image of a cat with a toy back at her and she was still laughing as she dropping into her old bunk.

Inara and Simon were there, a variety of boxes on the bed and nervousness seeping out their pores. She shook her head at them and moved to take the round hatbox from Inara. “You plan to threaten her,” she said quietly. “Try to scare the girl with talk about children and consequences.” The two stiffened, but she continued, opening the box to reveal an assortment of options. How long had Inara been holding on to these? She poked at a foil wrapped object and drew it out to wave in their faces. “She can tell you now, this will not be acceptable. He will refuse such and so will she.”

Jaws flapped. Faces turned colors and mental images bloomed. She whimpered and hunched her shoulders against the denial in her brother’s mind. Inara was less painful. This was still her job, just a different aspect of it after all; and she really was happy that the girl had found someone who saw her for who she was. She just worried that the long term consequences hadn’t been considered for this aspect of their relationship. And she was right to be concerned.

Warm fur rubbed against her hand and she took a breath and buried her fingers in his ruff. “She knows the possibilities. Had meant to ask about options.” She poked at something else, a little box of pills. “She bleeds now anyways. Not an issue for a few more days.”

That had been a trick in and of itself; getting her Captain and Riddick up into the bridge without her so she could take care of her disobedient body. She’d finally resorted to stomping her foot as they reached her old bunk, pointing at the hatch down the hall, and glaring at Riddick while she told the Captain flat out that if he didn’t want to let her out of his sight that was fine, but she was on her menses and needed to find the head.

She wished she’d had a stopwatch. He must have broken the sound barrier on his way past her, but the boom was lost in the ringing of his boots on the deck. Riddick had laughed, brushed a hand over her shoulder and down her spine, shoved a few mental images at her of the ways they could torture the Captain once she was done bleeding, and stalked off after him on cat feet. She didn’t think it had sunk in for him yet, how much of a struggle these next few days would be.

She blocked the thought before it could trickle over to him.

River shook the memory from her head and focused on the two in front of her. Inara had calmed somewhat, and while the thought of the big ex-convict with River was still making her a bit nervous in some ways, her first instinctual actions after Riddick had gone after Simon already proved which side she’d come down on with. Her brother, on the other hand, was warring between the Doctor and the _ge ge_ and not making much headway on either side.

“Simon,” she said, setting the box aside. “It is done. You cannot separate us. Please,” she laid her hands on his face and did her best to project calm at him. It sometimes worked, even with those who didn’t have an inner animal to help transmit. “Please be happy for your _mei mei_. She had found someone who matches her in every way. There are many fine bodies in the Universe, but his mind,” she paused and searched for words. “His mind is a still pool in the forest. Calm and cool and inviting. Was her anchor against the Painwalker’s screams. All unknowing, he kept me sane. Even,” her lips twisted wryly as she braced herself for the reaction. “Even when he was planning ways to kill me and take his freedom.”

Simon stiffened and rage poured off him. Fear and lesser anger seeped past Inara’s mask, and she could feel them both calculating the various ways and means their professions had given them when it came to murder. She flinched. It was too much, too close, and even braced as she’d been she still couldn’t handle the full brunt of it. She felt Riddick’s attention in her mind, turning from an argument Jayne was having with the Captain over Kyra and towards her.

He was three feet out of the bridge and down the hall before either of the other two had noticed he was gone. She reached towards him, trying to block the transmission of what Inara and Simon were still giving off, and the jaguar landed at her feet in the dust among the roots at the base of the tree just as she heard his boot on the hatch to the bunk. She gasped, dropped, let the animal wrap itself around her, and tried to find her voice.

“F-fine,” she called up, ignoring the stares and sudden fear of the other two in the room as best she could. “Just couldn’t brace well enough.”

There was a pause as she heard Mal and Jayne asking what was wrong, a wordless caress of calm in her mind, and he turned away from the hatch. The jaguar stayed with her though, and she basked in its warmth as she glared at her brother and her friend. “ _Wu de tyen ahI_ ” She hissed. “He can hear you! Do you truly wish to sign your own death warrants? Right now, on this boat, there is only _one_ person he will not kill if you make yourselves a threat and neither of you are it. Do not poke at the hungry wolf before he’s decided to become part of the pack!”

There were needles in Simon’s mind now. Doubts as to her stability; and she groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Simon,” she moaned. “She is sane. As sane as she’ll ever be. Listen to her warnings please. The girl is not just a sister any more. Not a daughter. She is the match, the other half of a puzzle. Take one away now and the other will be broken beyond all repair. Regression.” She lifted her head to meet his eyes. She knew Riddick could hear her in his mind and through the hull and curled herself tighter into the embrace of the jaguar as she readied herself for what came next.

She hated to expose weakness like this, but her brother _must_ understand the death he was courting. She sent out contrition and explanations of intent to the listening man while she spoke out loud for the others to hear. “For the Riddick, instinct and reflex would come to the fore. All will die; the ship painted in blood. He will revel in it and look for more. And if there is breath left in her body, if the girl has a shred of consciousness left in her after you try to break them apart, she will let him.” Fear was rolling off of her brother in waves, but the needles were gone. “She will help him.”

The two looked at each other, then at River, and Simon sighed. “River, I-”

She shook her head and blocked them out as best she could. “Enough _ge ge_. What’s said has been said, and it needed saying. Now,” she poked at the box again and tried to hide her revulsion at the necessity of her next words. “Are shots a possibility? With the hormones in her system being what they are? Pills require regularity in their taking, and that cannot always be found on _Serenity_.”

Simon snorted, Inara hid a laugh behind her hands, and just like that the two of them decided that whatever else they might think about the situation and Riddick’s unpredictabilities, _Serenity_ _’_ _s_ were far worse on a daily basis. She let them have the illusion and prayed that her match would decide to graft himself in to the crew before they got themselves killed.

 

~HHYFN~

 

Riddick leaned against the railing of the catwalk and tried not to fume. He knew the logic in the decision that had been made. He could even agree with it. But it didn’t make him any happier. He just couldn’t figure out which part pissed him off more. The fact that it was the right choice, or the fact that it had been the Captain who’d given him the order. Not a suggestion. Not a request, for all it had been phrased that way. He knew what an order was, given enough of them himself and been on the receiving end of far more. It helped, a bit, that the man had been dead serious when he’d talked. Not mocking, not condescending. It was plain and simple. Stay on the boat, out of sight of scans and cameras. Let River go off with her brother and the Companion. With only Zoe to keep an eye on them.

It stank of trouble, and the tightly controlled uneasiness that had been rolling off the man hadn’t helped. He’d wanted to argue. To ask them what their plan was if some random vid screen triggered River again. She’d cut through them like plasma through steel and move on to the next target while they were still realizing that they were bleeding out in the street.

River had poked her nose in then, figuratively at least. Physically she was still in her old bunk, getting changed into something she could wear planetside. The Doc had left her, still smelling of doubt, fear, and determination. Riddick knew that his eventual confrontation with the boy was more likely to involve threats of slow death than any sort of agreement on either side. But that was an issue for later. He had the one in front of him to deal with. The issue of how he was going to keep from sticking a shiv in the ribs of the Captain, of how he was going to keep his cool when River left the ship.

Over a month now, since he’d knocked her out in that merc ship and she’d woken screaming on the Destroyer. A month in which they’d practically been living in each other’s hip pockets. A month in which he’d kept track of her heart beat, her breathing, and her scents; all with a dedication that landed firmly in the “Obsessive” category of behaviors. The amount of time that they’d been living inside each other’s heads was less than that, but still…The thought of having her out of ear shot, leaving only lingering residuals instead of fresh scent in his nostrils, it was making his skin crawl.

He fucking hated it.

::Stupid,:: her voice was mocking inside his head, and a small hand slipped into the crook of the man’s elbow where he crouched by the stream and stared back at the cave that the animal had retreated to. ::Still in each other’s heads. She will be back soon.:: Her voice changed, wincing in pain, and he pushed at her till she let him see Simon peeling the bandages from her feet. They were mostly healed, but her brother was speaking in doctor terms about staying off of them and being careful of blisters on the new skin and of not wanting her to twist an ankle. She wasn’t letting him see the rest of her, just the feet, and he wondered at that. Another prod only earned him a mental ringing in his ears as she slammed down a wall between her visual centers and his.

::He will see soon enough,:: she laughed as he growled. Down in the cargo bay Jayne yanked his head up to stare and the little mechanic twitched and looked to the gun hand for reassurance. Riddick met the man’s eyes and didn’t bother to hide his scowl. That was another one he’d be having words with. For many different reasons.

River sighed in his head. ::No worries. You will be entertained while she is gone. Captain plans to see if you will help shift cargo in one of the holds. The weapons lockers are there and the blades have been stashed away from little fingers. ::

She was trying to appease him and fuck if it wasn’t working. He lifted a lip as he listened to her giggle and the Doc’s resigned sigh down in the infirmary. Footsteps on metal drew his attention, and he looked over to see the first mate coming out of the hatch that led from the bridge to the catwalk. She flicked a look his way, set her daughter down with a pat on the rump and an order to go say goodbye to Jayne and Kaylee, and headed in his direction. She didn’t bother to quiet her feet, but he had a feeling that she knew how to be silent when it was called for. River shifted in his head, gave him an image of the woman surrounded by a pile of bodies with slit throats, and went back to arguing with her brother about slippers as versus half boots.

“There gonna be a ship left when we come back?” Zoe propped her elbows up on the rail and watched her daughter down below. At least this one seemed to have some idea as to the danger he represented. The shock was wearing off, for him at least, and he was pretty well done with being the center of attention for a while. Time to see just what is was they’d landed in. This woman, for all her care for River and the fact that she hadn’t batted an eye about the two of them sharing quarters, she was one to watch. He had no doubt that the minute she thought he’d become a true threat to the wellbeing of her daughter or any of the rest of the crew, River included, she’d set herself to one task: Killing him. It was almost a comfort, knowing someone on this boat had their head on straight.

On the deck below, Jayne pulled the kid off the cargo hauler she was clinging to and swung her up in the air. The girl wailed a protest that turned into a riot of giggles when the mechanic caught her and set fingers to ribs before dropping her well out of the way of the machine’s backdraft. Riddick twisted to watch as the two clambered aboard and headed out. Jayne had his head tipped back, looking first at the little girl and then up at Riddick and Zoe before they made a turn and were lost from sight.

“Momma, momma, momma!” Sierra came pounding up the stairs and launched herself at her mother, who caught her with the ease of long practice. As if suddenly realizing who else was on the catwalk, she blinked at Riddick and stuck a finger in her mouth. He wasn’t fooled. There wasn’t a shy bone in this girl’s body, and nothing in her scent told him to expect anything but what happened next. She grinned at him and reached with both hands. He twitched out of range and eyed them carefully. Slobber, residual sugar, and soap from what must have been someone’s attempt to get her cleaned up.

Zoe’s eyes were dancing as she grabbed for the back of her daughter’s shirt, and he caught a draft of mischief half a second before action and thought unified. The little girl gave an extra lunge and toppled right over with a yelp. Riddick found himself holding her by the back of the shirt without even knowing he’d reached to catch her. She giggled and he shot Zoe a look as the smirking woman took her daughter back. “Someone’s been teaching you bad manners,” she said, tapping the kid on the nose. “And giving you candy. Who?”

He knew who. And he thought he might know why. Amusement warred with dread warred with interest as he watched Sierra lean up to cup a sticky hand to her mother’s ear and attempt to whisper “River.” He fought the twist of his lips as Zoe shook her head and tried to detangle her hair from the hand it was stuck to.

She caught his gaze through the goggles and sighed. “Suspect you’ve gotten used to her tricks by now. Or I hope ya have. Girl can be five kinds of cunning when she feels like it.” She set her daughter down and told her to go find the Captain and _stay on the ship_ before going back to leaning on the rail. “I come back and find a bloodbath though, you’re gonna wish it were River and her pranks you had to deal with.” Determination and steel mixed with gun oil, leather, and sugar as she looked at him. That was a poker face to be proud of, and he felt his respect for the woman increase just a notch. He could take her. They both knew it, but that wasn’t the point of this conversation. The Captain and Jayne had tried their dominance games with him and he’d played along for the fun of it. This was a woman who had no need for posturing and puffing herself up. She’d do what she set out to do, and if she decided he needed killing then she’d move heaven and earth to bring it to pass.

Suddenly, he didn’t feel as on edge about River going out with just her brother and the Companion if this was the caliber of warrior going with them. Between the two, the others would be well protected if trouble started.

River shifted in the back of his mind, anticipation mixed with wary expectation floating to the surface of what he could see and feel, and he heard her brother’s feet as they stepped into the cargo bay below. Riddick turned to look down as they passed beneath the catwalk, wondering what might have sparked that particular mix of emotions. He couldn’t smell her from up here, but her heart rate was elevated, and she was trying to control it with her breathing. Zoe was grinning next to him, and anticipation rose in her scent. It bloomed to outright pride and amusement as River stepped into full view.

She twisted in his mind as surprise shorted out the man and the animal both. Disbelief warred with outrage warred with pure and unadulterated lust. He cursed, both in the physical and the mental, and she twitched where she stood, on arm hooked through her brother’s. The Doc was looking up at them, but she’d kept her face set forward.

Avoiding him.

Like that would ever work.

He left the railing and headed for the stairs. Zoe had straightened, hooked her fingers in her belt, and was watching him with a blank face as she closed down her emotions. He caught a draft of deep sorrow before he was out of range, but he was more focused on River anyways. His ears told him that Sierra had found the Captain, and was dragging him through the common room near the infirmary to come “See River be pretty.”

He tuned them out as well.

He had one focus, both in body and in mind, and she was trying to hide from both. The weapon had placed herself in front of the jaguar as it hissed, and the girl was taking slow careful steps away from the man as he backed her into the stream. Anger and frustration and lust were seeping from her like oil, and he could smell a riot of vanilla and steel, mint and cedar blooming in the air around her. He gained the deck and paced towards her, eyes roving. The Doc’s increasing heartbeat and no small amount of fear mixed with determination were shoved back into a corner of his mind to be monitored but otherwise forgotten. The man was no threat. Not really.

The girl on the other hand…

Her hands were barely visible, gleaming golden nails peeking out from layers after layers of hyper saturated blue gauze sandwiched between brown and gold. Little green crystals were woven into a metallic netting of some sort that hung in squares and swatches over and under the squares of fabric. He realized she was feeding him the colors, bypassing his optic nerves and the purpled grayscale he’d be seeing her in otherwise. The animal rumbled out a purr as the man surveyed the woman standing ankle deep in the streambed. She was made of blades, her jaw set, her eyes on the tree he had herded her away from, and any second now she was going to lose it.

Tiny bells sewn into the hemlines of the swathes of fabric tinkled as she shuddered in place, and the band holding the veils over her hair shimmered as light from outside caught the crystals set there and set them on fire. Dark eyes rimmed in kohl and some sort of shimmering powder snapped over the fabric that was only making a token effort to hide the lower half of her face, and he could see her lips thinning as she settled her weight onto the balls of her feet. Steel came out on top, matched only by the cedar oil he knew had been dotted at neck and wrist and down in her center to cover the old blood that still weeped from her there.  

The doc was saying something in a deliberately calm voice, although Riddick couldn’t tell which of them it was aimed at. Mal had Sierra locked in his arms and she was protesting at the top of her lungs, wanting to go say goodbye to Pretty River. Steel and gun oil ghosted up behind him, and River let him know that Zoe’s holster was still snapped shut, short barreled shotgun safely in place. He placed them all in his mental map, but focused on the girl who stood in front of him wrapped in enough layers of near transparent fabric that he could have built a tent from the outfit. She’d lost the argument about footwear and was wearing the half boots instead of slippers. They were soft, leather, and embroidered with metallic thread that caught the light and drew the eye. A wide band of stiff brown fabric embroidered in blue and gold covered her from breastbone to hip, but it was the only concession to practicality or decency that he could see.

The planet itself moved, just enough to let the sun glare directly into the cargo bay, and his brain came alive as she lit up like a small sun. He could see her through all the gauze, slim form solid against the glowing fabric. The animal clawed at the man, shoving him down in the stream so that the girl could sprint past him and make it to the safety of the tree. Riddick realized he was rumbling, knew his dick was hard as a rock and everyone could tell, but he didn’t care. This girl, this woman, was about to go out into a planet full of who knew what kind of people dressed in the social equivalent of raptor bait. They may as well chop her up and drag her behind the ship for all the attention she’d be getting from those who hunted her.

The urge to throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to their shuttle was almost overwhelming. He might have done it too, had one hand on her arm even, when she lifted her chin and glared. “ _Bi zuie! Wang bao dahn!_ ” She stepped back and shoved the man in the river again, and Riddick stopped himself mid-grab to glare at her. Emotions washed over him, not just scents, but the actual feelings. Her anger, the worry of her brother, cold dread from Mal, the certainty of Zoe.

A knowledge, planted like a seed and watered to fruition, bloomed in his mind. She’d done this before. Many times. He even had a vague recollection of her having mentioned something to the effect at one point. Not in any detail. No detail could have prepared him for this. She shoved the awareness his way. What he was looking at was a different kind of camouflage. The kind that turned attention by drawing the eye to something that was clearly not what the mind was expecting. She was bait all right, the sort meant to catch men and ensnare them, not the kind that resisted authorities and killed people in dirty little slum bars.

The man rose from the river and shook himself off, glaring halfheartedly at the girl still on the bank. The animal was leaning against her leg, and she had a hand buried in the fur between its shoulders. She offered him a wry smile as he stalked towards her, and didn’t complain when the hand that was still on her arm in the physical moved so it could turn her around. The Doc still stank of unease and the almost-fear of a person who’s fight or flight instincts were at war; but the heartbeats of the rest of the crew in the bay had slowed somewhat.

Riddick tilted his head and eyed River up and down as he let her stop turning and paced around her instead. She followed him with her eyes, still glaring, He came to a halt in front of her and gripped her shoulder as gently as he knew how before taking careful hold of the lower veil and pulling it down past her nose and chin. Her tongue flickered out over glossed lips, and his heart roared in his ears, drowning out the embarrassed mutters of the men around him and the giggle of the little girl as he covered her mouth with his. Just for a moment, just until she started truly leaning into him, and he pulled away to whisper in her ear. “Still say you’ll get yourself killed in that getup. First thing they’ll do is strangle you with the veils.”

A small fist impacted on his ribs and she snapped her teeth at his ear. Vanilla and steel now in equal measures, and he drank it in like a drug to store up in his mind until she made it back. Riddick chuckled and backed off, letting Zoe move forward and Simon to hook his sister’s arm through his own. The first mate gave the ex-convict an unreadable look to match her unreadable scent before placing a hand on the girl’s back and turning her towards the starboard side stairway. Incense curled into his nose and he looked up to see Inara leaning over the catwalk, amusement only barely covered by worry as she watched her charge climb the stairs.

Mal was speaking, and the little girl tugging at his pants, but he had eyes only for the form of his other half as she slipped out of the burning sunlight and into the shadows. He had ears only for her laughter as she replied to Zoe’s muttered, “Men,” with a burst of near hysterical giggles.

The man and the jaguar stretched, reaching for her mind before she slipped out of sight into the shuttle, and ran jaw and hand over her body in mute apology. She stopped and turned back to look at him, only her eyes and hair visible over the shoulder of her brother as he waited for her to continue, and Riddick couldn’t tell if she was smiling or not when she replied, ::Later we will see who is bait and who is prey.::

And then she was gone.

 

 

~HHYFN~

 **Author** **’s Note:** Sooo…honeymoon with the crew over? I think that, if the scene with Simon hadn’t been enough, they might be starting to realize just what they’ve got on board. Joy!

 

I think there’s a trope for this. For several things in this story actually, and River/Riddick stories in particular. Bond cuts, mindspeaking, and the inevitable “River Dresses Up Nice and Riddick’s Brain Melts.” Sorry Riddick…well, not really.

 

As always, love to hear from everyone! Please tell me what you think! Please?

And also, they don’t belong to me. Not a bit. Not one tiny bit. Dangit.

 

 

Translations:

 _Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiouh doh sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo_ : Everything in space stuffed up my ass

 _Ge ge_ : big brother

 _Mei mei:_ little sister

 _Wu de tyen ah:_ Dear God in heaven

 _Bi zuie! Wang bao dahn:_ Shut up! Dirty bastard

 

Cool water-calm, battle state

Sour fruit- drugs burning out of system

Citrus-fear/terror

Rain/apples- base scent

Charcoal-tipping off edge of sanity

Silk- joy, exaltation

Wet earth/peat- sadness

Warm vanilla-arousal

steel, the smell of a good blade freshly honed.-anger

Witchhazel-mindless killing, when she's a river of blades

Mint- anticipation

Simon's cooking-disgust

Malt-exhaustion

Bitter herb-hurt, emotional

Charcoal and fire-she is in the river, listening

Burnt sugar-embarrass

Ozone-despair

Sour apples-shock, surprise

Cedar-when she's playing at being companion. Perfume of apprentice

 

Forward/bow--Front

Aft-Rear/back

Port-Left as facing forward

Starboard-Right as facing forward

Head-Toilet/bathroom, etc

Galley-Kitchen

Hatch-Doorway

Bulkhead- Walls.

Slip/berth: Place to dock a boat, designated parking.

Hull-Outer shell of the boat/ship/whatever. Don’t breach this. **Fiery death!**

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

Ch. 23

_I feel a million miles away, still you connect me in your way_  
_And you create in me something I would_ _’ve never seen_  
_When I could only see the floor, you made my window a door_  
_So when they say they don_ _’t believe I hope that they see you in me_  
                “Be Somebody”, Relient K

 

“Interesting crew you got here.”

Malcom Reynolds prided himself on being a cool head in a crisis. Calm when the need called for it. He’d lived through a lot that would have, and in many cases, _had_ caused others to panic and run. So when he heard a voice like sin rumble its way through the air around him with no prior indication that someone had joined him in the hold, he did what any proper Captain with his life experience would do.

He yelled in alarm, his voice cracking halfway through, and spun around. Dark goggles glinted in the light, and caramel skin gleamed. A smirk was tugging at the other man’s face, and even though his arms were folded, Mal had no illusions about how far he’d get if he tried to run. He was reminded of a mountain lion, waiting for its prey to pass under a tree or embankment so it could drop down and snap its neck. He fought to catch his breath, and checked reflexively for Sierra. She was where he’d left her penned in a ring of crates, a makeshift doll sitting forgotten in one hand as she stared at Riddick. The big man looked down at her and raised an eyebrow when she lifted her arms and demanded to be picked up. When he glanced back to Mal, the Captain shook his head. “Can’t figure what’s wrong with you kid. Ain’t got near half you’re momma’s self-preservation instincts.”

She pouted at him and crossed her arms, and Mal got his second big surprise of the hour when Riddick laughed, a dark sound that spoke of danger and death, and crouched down so he was on her level. “Should listen kid. Trust like that can get you killed.”

She frowned at him and stamped her foot. “River likes you. Can’t be bad.”

Mal was surprised to see something in the man’s face tighten before he straightened and looked his way. It was hard to read expressions with those goggles on, but if he’d had to take a shot at, the former soldier would have said it was regret and disbelief he saw there. He didn’t get a chance to confirm his guess, because Riddick had gone right back to smirking. “Lotta trust you people put in that girl.” He tilted his head and looked sideways at the cabinet set just inside the door. Mal found his fingers stretching for his gun on reflex when the other man reached for on the handles and pulled. How had he…?

“Makes me wonder though.” Riddick had lifted out a leather harness with a set of incredibly strange blades strapped into it, the same harness in fact, that Jayne had taken off the man before they’d cuffed him up. Everything in his posture spoke of confidence and the surety that in the time it would take to clear the gun from its holster, he could do more far more damage to those around him than Mal could ever dream of. The Captain had a flashback, just a small one, to earlier in the day when Jayne had come in his role as devil’s advocate and asked why they should get themselves kilt over the corpse of a girl none of them had known. The man hadn’t reacted much then, other than a tightening of the jaw. They hadn’t gotten around to any sort of verbal response either, because he’d straightened abruptly, loped out of the bridge, and gone to kick at the hatch of River’s old bunk. Creepify’n didn’t being to cover it.

Mal frowned, realizing Riddick was waiting for him to say something. He didn’t like it, the way the man drew a conversation out. Almost as bad as when he seemed to be having words with River in his head that then spilled out of their mouths. But Mal knew he wasn’t going to win this round. It had been written on the wall long ago that whoever River decided was good enough for her was going turn out to be a colossal pain in his arse and just as cryptic to boot.

Sighing, he turned back to the crates he was trying to get untied. “Makes ya wonder what ‘xactly?”

“You see her hand? The right one?”

What the gorram hell was that supposed to mean? “No,” Mal said shortly, and yanked open a metal clip. “Was more interested in the ruttin’ gash down her arm.”

There was a scrape and a thud and Mal turned to see Riddick shifting one of the loose crates out of his way and onto one of the ones that formed Sierra’s designated safety zone. The girl yelped in protest. The big man ignored her. “Bit it bloody, night she found you people. Scared out of her mind for a week of coming home.” The man’s voice wasn’t hard. There was, in fact, almost a gentleness to it. Mal checked the gun in his holster on reflex. “Gun won’t help you. Bullets are fast sure, but I can drop you before it clears leather.” Goggled eyes were boring into blue now, and Mal realized that the weapons locker had been emptied of all Riddick’s personal effects. They were now strapped and sheathed and hidden all over his body.

Wide nostrils flared and Riddick took a step closer. “So I’ve been wondering. Why the sudden trust? Every one of you was ready to lock her up or put her down when you found her.” Inches separated them now, and the Captain told himself that fear was fine, it was running that made you a coward. “What changed?”

Mal wanted to sit. But that would be giving way and he was the Captain of the gorram boat and the hell if he’d give this s _hiong-muh duh duang-ren_ an inch he didn’t have to. The face in front of him twitched slightly and he wondered briefly if Riddick had been about to smile. But there were more important matters at hand, like little pitchers with big ears and a question that, if not answered right, could end up meaning his life. “Zoe,” he said finally, stepping sideways and away and forcing confidence into his voice. “I’m guess’n River told you some of what life’s been like for her?”  
                “A bit.” Riddick crossed his arms and leaned against the stack of crates, every line in his body speaking of his willingness to outwait the Captain. Mal shuddered, glad that River wasn’t around to catch the turmoil of doubt and wariness currently churning through his head.

“Anyways, she said something, day we found you all. ‘Bout River maybe not wanting to come back.” Mal shrugged and made sure the weapons locker was good and sealed before turning back around. Sierra had gone back to playing with her doll, thank goodness, and was having an invisible tea party. It was impossible to tell where Riddick’s eyes were directed, but something about the set of his shoulders told Mal that his attention was at least partially on the girl. “Got me think’n,” Mal said to cover his nervousness. There hadn’t been violence so far, but that could change. The man oozed it. “Figured we find her, whole and mostly sane, we take her at her word. Find her raving…” he shrugged and crossed his arms. “Things might have gone a different way.”

“You found her deadly.” Riddick’s voice gave nothing away. “Found her surrounded by bodies, trying to kill me.” He straightened where he stood and pulled one of those curved blades from the sheath at his back and started running his thumb along the straight edge, turning it this way and that as if looking for the dulls spots. “Know your first mate had at least one shot at either of us. Why didn’t you have her take it?”

Mal shrugged. He didn’t have a straightforward answer for that. “Knew a man once,” he said to give himself time to think. “A Shepherd. Couldn’t get him to shut up about God to save my life.” Riddick snorted and Mal raised an eyebrow as he took up post in the door and looked out into the bay. He knew this game. Played it often enough with Jayne. Give the man his back and see what would happen. Show confidence and act like he didn’t care he could get stabbed in the back, literally in this case. There was also the fact that he didn’t want anyone reading his face when he talked on his old friend. “Left the boat, went to go tend a flock on Haven.” A shift behind him, and even Sierra had gone silent.

“Took us in from time to time after a job. After the first time those _huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang-huo_ triggered our girl. Told me something then. Thought he was talking on God at first.” Mal turned in the door to see Riddick frowning and Sierra’s big brown eyes staring. He hated this story. Hated to tell it. But every so often a wound needed to be lanced open. “Talked on belief. How it’d get me through what was coming. Told me that whatever River said, I should listen. Should believe.” The Captain ran a hand through his hair and stared at his feet. “He saw something in her. Knew something about her I don’t think any a’ the rest of us coulda figured on.”

“So what, you remember that now, when the first time she wanted get herself healed up she had to steal a shuttle and go into hiding?” Riddick’s voice was all kinds of unimpressed. He turned that strange blade over in his hands again, then took a firm grip on its handle.

“Look,” Mal straightened, just about done with the games. “Say what you came to say. Or kill me. Your choice. You want to rub mistakes in my face, go right ahead! But she’s back now, Doc hasn’t gone near her with a needle and neither _one_ of you are in chains!” Riddick was growling, but Mal had had enough. This was his ship, his crew to take care of, and if this man was willing to fall into that category for River’s sake then _fine_. But it didn’t mean he got to judge; and it sure as hell didn’t mean Mal had to take it.

Riddick stilled, and light glinted off the edge of the blade he held in one hand. The other was clenched in a fist big enough to rival Jayne’s. For one panicked moment, the Captain almost thought he was about to see what his own insides looked like, and all he could think was that he hoped Sierra’s presence would stop the man, that he wouldn’t kill in front of her. He seemed to like kids well enough after all.

Something shifted in the big man’s stance then, and he tilted his head to one side as if he could tell what Mal was thinking. A heartbeat, and then another, and Riddick pushed himself upright and slipped his mutated knife back into its harness. “You ever consider chaining her again,” he rumbled. “You ever let her brother near her with those drugs again, you’ll see just what kind of animal I am.” He turned to look at the stack of crates Mal hadn’t manage to get completely unstrapped. “Now what are you looking for in here? Or is it just rebalancing cargo?”

Mal blinked, snapped his jaw shut, and glared at the giggling little girl that was crawling over the crates that had formed her play area. Riddick turned to snatch her out of midair when she launched herself at him, set her back down in her designated safe zone, and looked over at the Captain.

“Need to get to some of River’s stuff. Boxed all her weapons up out of the Little Bit’s reach. Don’t fit too well in the locker.” He stepped forward to get the last strap undone, ignoring the way Riddick hulked next to him, and started hauling the boxes down. “Speaking of which, Sierra you get on down to the bay.” He could hear the outer doors opening and it was better to have her under Jayne’s feet than his anyways. “Sounds like Jayne and Kaylee are back. Go pester them a bit why doncha.”

The little girl stamped her foot, stuck out her tongue, and ran out of the room. Mal sighed and went to go yell after her. “And you give anyone any more lip, you won’t get dessert for a week!” Behind him, he could hear Riddick laughing, and the Captain growled. No respect. None. Whatsoever.

 

~HHYFN~

 

It would be a few more hours before the shuttle returned, and Riddick used the time to get to know the ship a little better. There were enough smuggler’s holes and hideaways to satisfy the worst of paranoid pack rats, and the whole place was imbedded with the smells of her crew. River had been right. The engine room reeked not only of grease and metal and old oil, but layers of sex and the Doc. Kaylee had given him an odd look when he poked his head in and the young woman had tried to start a conversation, but he’d been left before she’d gotten two words out of her mouth. Woman was nosey.

The galley had been tidied up at some point, probably while he and River had been drifting in each other’s minds, and he almost went hunting for something to eat before deciding that food could wait. They probably kept a tally of it anyways and he wasn’t getting shot or kicked off the ship over food. River yes. Food just wasn’t worth the trouble, not when he could wait. Besides, all the labels were in Chinese.

Jayne wandered through while he stood there, trying to decide if he should go poking through River’s old bunk or up to the bridge to get a better look at the controls. Neither course of action would probably win him any points, but it was better to be hated and familiar with his surroundings than to play it safe. Never knew what he’d need after all.

“Here,” the hired gun had stepped carefully around the ex-convict and into what had been his holding cell. Turned out it was a pantry. He came out with a basket of rolls and a can of something Riddick still couldn’t read the label on. Shrugging, Jayne had shoved them in his direction and stalked over to the galley proper. “Got kitchen rights. So long as you don’t eat ever’thing in sight and leave enough so we’ll make it to the next port. Missed a few meals ‘tween here and Persephone.” He tossed something over the counter and Riddick caught it on his elbow and bounced it into the basket of rolls. The other man whistled and grinned. Riddick frowned. The man’s base scent hadn’t changed any, but he was catching approval and confidence instead of the anger and wariness that had been present when he’d gotten back to the ship. The Captain must have summed up their conversation for the man somewhere either loud or out of earshot while he’d gotten River’s weapons stashed in the shuttle and started his walk around the ship. Odd though, how the hired gun seemed to have taken it. If Mal was the dog with its hackles up, Jayne was the one who’d found a pack mate. It remained to be seen if he’d end up willing to join this particular pack though. For one thing, he did much, much better on his own than he ever had with a bunch of probable targets gumming up the works.

That was an interesting puzzle, how the two men who to all appearances didn’t trust each other still worked and moved in tandem. The whole crew did, stepping around, over and past each other as they went about their duties. And there was River, slipping in among them just as easy as a sharp blade through skin. Even more interesting how they just moved aside, folded her in, and kept on going. It didn’t mean they’d stopped fearing her though and they all kept giving her wary looks when her back was turned, but for the most part she seemed to have forgiven them and moved on.

::Have to,:: her voice was faint in his head, and he could tell only half her attention was on him. ::Have _been_. For years. If the girl held every little worry and fear close to her heart for all of her days, they would not have lasted much past the arrival of the bounty hunter who thought he was a lion. She would have merged with the ship and probably opened the airlock on them all. So long as she’s not overwhelmed, she can try to forget what they think without knowing it.::

And if that wasn’t a visual he didn’t know what was. He snorted, and Jayne gave him a sideways look before going back to the bundle he’d dumped on the table when he’d entered the room. Riddick smelled something he could only label as watchfulness as it radiated out from the gun hand. He snorted again, this time to clear his nose a bit, and set the basket and the can down on the table, a ways away from the bits of electronics the man was fiddling with.

“Don’t get you people,” he muttered finally, unable to keep the thought to himself and wondering what the man who’d tried to sell her would have to say on the topic. The thing Jayne had tossed at him turned out to be some sort of can opener, which he guessed was more logical than his initial plan of using a shiv to crack the thing open. “Act like you trust her, or try to. Body language says one thing. Words coming out of your mouths say something else entirely. Which is it?”

“What’d the Captain tell ya?”

Riddick wished the lights were lower so he could meet the hard eyes of the gun hand directly, not through the goggles. “Think you know,” he replied and popped the top off the can he’d just cut open. It was full of peaches, floating in thin liquid that smelled of sugar and tin. He frowned and ran through his options. He had all his weapons back now. The Captain hadn’t said word one about it when he’d strapped them all back on, but the scent coming off him at the time had stank of worry and barely suppressed fear. He wanted River around, or at least in range for her to get a clear bead on her crew and let him know what was going on in their minds. He could tell who felt what, but he’d come to depend on her insights as to why. And in this new place, with these new people who did everything backwards from everything he expected; all the normal reasons for this reaction and that were flying right out the window. Crippled, that’s what he was without her. Not that he couldn’t manage just fine, but still.

::Spoilt,:: she muttered before going back to whatever she was doing. Something about cloth and metal. He shook his head and pulled one of his smaller shivs, spearing a peach and letting as much of the syrup drip off of it as he could before taking a bite.

“See that, right there,” Jayne had his knife out and a coil of half stripped copper wire in his other hand. “Damages the calm you see. Bad enough Moonbrain walks around having conversations with butterflies and the like. You do the same thing.”

Not wanting to spray bits of peach and syrup everywhere, Riddick settled for raising an eyebrow and tilting his head in question as he kicked out a chair and dropped into it. Jayne shook his head and went back to stripping the plastic coating off the ends of the wire. “Girl ain’t never gonna be sane. Shoulda seen her when she come on board. Throw’n things, slicing people open.” He rubbed at his chest and then shook the knife in Riddick’s direction. “She ain’t done that in a while, but she’s still creepify’n as all hell when she wants to be. Likes to confuse people in her free time, mess with your head.” He stopped when Riddick chuckled and frowned. “Guess’n you’ve seen some ‘o that.”

“Cap’n told me he near went off his rocker when she headed out with Inara and Simon. And there she stood, pretty as you please, just wait’n it out.”

Riddick whipped around in his chair. He’d hadn’t paid much attention to the boots he’d heard in the hall and assumed that they were the Captain’s. The knife Jayne had been waving in his face had called a little more of his focus. Kaylee stepped down into the room and dropped into the chair by Jayne, giving him a small smile as she took some of the stripped down wires and started sorting. Riddick raised an eyebrow, but it wasn’t true fear that was coming off of her, just honest nerves. Oranges instead of raw lemons.

The gun hand laughed and handed over the last of the wires before reaching for a basket of electronic bits. “He tell you which outfit it was she went out in?”

“Blue and brown I think. One that makes her look like a fairy.”

Maybe if he stayed around these people long enough he’d start to understand why they didn’t fear a bloody and painful end. Maybe he’d figure out why, even through the nerves and watchfulness, they persisted in doing things like waving fresh meat at the animal and then taking it away. He growled, just to remind them he was still there, and pulled one of his bigger shivs to slice open a roll. Kaylee’s eyes went huge, and Jayne’s narrowed. More nerves, rippling through the air like a stone dropped in a pond. He fought a smile. Good. Better that they didn’t know what he was going to do.

Jayne paused a moment, as if he was waiting to see if there’d be bloodshed, before shaking his head and going back to sorting bits out of the basket. “Still think them Companions are off their nuts, dress’n the Apprentices like that. Inara’s worn some [_è_ __ _r_ _á_ _n_](http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=amazing) (shocking/amazing) stuff, but ain’t none of it been see through like some of the get up’s she sticks Moonbrain in.”

Amusement mixed with the lemons coming off Kaylee, and she laughed shakily before throwing a glance over at Riddick. He’d frozen, roll in pieces in his hands, and was glaring at them both. “Its custom I guess. At least that’s what she told us.” She was speaking to both the men now. “Flaunt the Apprentice, tease the men. But she’s marked as unavailable, and the Guild’s got their ways of getting back at anyone who tries something.” She shrugged and turned back to Jayne. “‘Nara ain’t exactly a fainting flower.”

Jayne shook his head. “She ain’t a killer. Zo is. Simon does what has to be done need calls for it. River leaves a pile of men bloody in the street for touch’n her, where you think it’ll lead back to? Them fancy whores in the Guild ain’t gonna speak for someone ain’t really one o’ theirs?”

Kaylee sighed and dropped the wires. “Jayne Cobb you are the most pessimistic person in existence. Been years they gone out like this. Aint noth’n happened yet.”

“Yet,” Riddick muttered. He agreed with the gun hand. The whole situation was just asking for trouble. In his head, River shifted slightly, and the feeling was odd, as if she was standing in the far distance instead of near the tree and the stream where she belonged. He pushed towards her, looking for a read of what was going on; what he got was bright lights, jewel toned fabrics, and the phrase “for six months” before she rose in front of him with pleading eyes and begged that he let her be for a moment.

There was something in the eyes of the girl as she pushed at the man’s back, something like anxiety mixed with anger. His animal growled and came forward to sit by her feet and glare up at her. She left off trying to push him away and stomped her foot instead. ::Please! She is trying to concentrate. Options must be gone over, reviewed, studied. She will explain when she returns!:: He caught one last impression of an inlaid box filled with an assortment of unrecognizable objects before he lost his grip on her mind. The man grumbled, the animal huffed and flopped down in the dirt in disgust, and he looked up to find Jayne and Kaylee staring at him. Fear and anticipation and mistrust roiled through the room, and he took a deep breath, letting the familiar smells trickle through him to his animal. This was how people usually smelled around him. This was the norm. Not always comfortable to his senses, less and less so since River had hooked herself into his brain, they were easier to deal with than other things he could name, like blind faith. That one crawled up his spine and settled behind his eyes like a nest of bees, and even the hints and drifts of it that this bunch had been giving off was starting to make him want to cut out every one of their hearts and start looking for whatever defect it was that made them all so stupid where he was concerned.

A fresh wave of lemons rolled off Kaylee, and her eyes were as big as dinner plates. Jayne had tensed, knife in one hand and the other down at his hip. Riddick heard the snap of the holster there being opened. A burning in his hand made him look down, and he realized he was gripping his own blade in both hands and blood was dripping down onto the surface of the table in rhythmic little plops, not quite in time with his heart. Another thing that was off. It should never be racing like it was now. That was for prey. He was predator. A snarl rippled out of his lips and filled the air around him, the familiar noise a comfort against the suddenly indrawn breaths of the others. Fucking idiots.

A scrape of boot over metal drew his eye to the hatch that led to the bridge, and Malcom Reynolds watched him through hard eyes. “Gonna want the Doc to look at that when he gets back.” Resolve filtered through the air towards his nose, mixed with no small amount of anger. The man’s hand was resting on his gun, but he saw Jayne relax out of the corner of his eye and Kaylee lost a little of her fear. This Captain was a cool one, when need called for it.

He could see it now. Up and throw and the Captain would be down. Stay moving so the hired gun couldn’t just draw and shoot him from under the table. Get Kaylee between him and the line of fire. She’d either get shot or Jayne would hesitate, and that would give him time to get in range of snapping the man’s neck. Grab the woman, lock her in one of the bunks, take the shuttle and go find River so they could get the fuck away from these lunatics. He was getting tired of being the new trophy up on display, and the trust they placed in her didn’t keep them from treating her like an armed time bomb. Which she was. But she was his time bomb. He understood her. They didn’t.

::Yes she is his,:: her voice was tinny, frantic even, and the fog in his mind shifted slightly at the sound of it. ::But he is expecting behaviors consistent with mercs, not a family!::

He growled. Out loud or in his head he didn’t know. She responded with a torrent of cold water, flung at the man and animal both. It slapped at him, fine spray driving its way into his subconscious. The man yelled, the animal spat and hissed, and just like that the bloodlust was gone. He found himself standing, halfway to the hatch, with no idea of when or how he’d moved. Luckily it was at the opposite end of the room from where everyone else was sitting, or he might have had a fight on his hands anyways. But nobody tried to stop him as he spun on his heel and stalked out door and down the hall. He was just grateful the kid was off somewhere out of sight. He’d probably scare the shit out of her, just to get rid of the last of his nerves, and that would really fuck things all out of proportion.

Fucking families.

 

~HHYFN~

 

**Author** **’s Note:** Sooo…Riddick alone with the crew. Pissed. This is good huh? Trying to show that no matter how squishy he’s gone over River, he still doesn’t play well with others if he doesn’t feel like it. If he was top dog and in control, sure. It’s all smug grins and messing with people’s heads. Poor guy.

As always, they aren’t mine. I’m playing in someone else’s sandbox. Two sets of sandboxes actually. Lawyers lawyers go away!

 

Translations:

s _hiong-muh duh duang-ren:_ violent lunatic

_huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang-huo_ : animal-fucking bastard

_è_ _r_ _á_ _n_ : shocking/amazing

 

Cool water-calm, battle state

Sour fruit- drugs burning out of system

Citrus-fear/terror

Rain/apples- base scent

Charcoal-tipping off edge of sanity

Silk- joy, exaltation

Wet earth/peat- sadness

Warm vanilla-arousal

steel, the smell of a good blade freshly honed.-anger

Witchhazel-mindless killing, when she's a river of blades

Mint- anticipation

Simon's cooking-disgust

Malt-exhaustion

Bitter herb-hurt, emotional

Charcoal and fire-she is in the river, listening

 

Burnt sugar-embarrass

Ozone-despair

Sour apples-shock, surprise

Cedar-when she's playing at being companion. Perfume of apprentice

 

Forward/bow--Front

Aft-Rear/back

Port-Left as facing forward

Starboard-Right as facing forward

Head-Toilet/bathroom, etc

Galley-Kitchen

Hatch-Doorway

Bulkhead- Walls.

Slip/berth: Place to dock a boat, designated parking.

Hull-Outer shell of the boat/ship/whatever. Don’t breach this. **Fiery death!**

 


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 24

 

 

  
_I feel insane every single time_  
_I'm asked to compromise_  
_Cause I'm afraid and stuck in my ways_  
_And that's the way it stays_  
_So how long did I expect love to outweigh ignorance?_  
_By that look on your face I may have forced the scale to tip_  
_“Almost Easy”, Avenged Sevenfold_

 

                River had edged Inara out of the pilot’s seat and was pushing the little shuttle as hard as she dared. Behind her, the other three occupants of the craft clung grimly to their seats and exchanged looks as she banked and turned among the spires and cantilevers that formed most of the architecture in this part of the city. She could feel their thoughts as they floated to the surface, were examined, and dropped back down in favor of the next worry. She wished they knew what it felt like, to have to sort all that from her own thought processes, keep the ship going, and keep tabs on the very frustrated, very angry man she should have never provoked in the first place.

Maybe if she’d given him more warning before she’d stepped into the bay. Maybe if she’d chosen something else to wear. There were other costumes she could have put on. Ones that weren’t almost entirely see through. Of course, those were cut and slashed in strategic places, or so tight she might as well be wearing nothing at all. Stupid, stupid move, to try and push him when he was still on edge from having to tell them all so much about himself. Stupid, to deny him connection and not explain why. Her own fears, coming to the fore. Her sense of pride and mischief, picking the worst possible moments possible to make their stabs at him.

                They landed with only a few mutters of alarm from Zoe and a couple of wary looks from the other two. She clambered past them as soon as the shuttle was locked in place, climbing over the boxes and bags as carefully as she could without losing any speed. They didn’t try to stop her, and she spared a moment to be grateful to them as she slapped the button to open the hatch. Her mind was elsewhere, tracking the Riddick, who was so wrapped up in trying not to come out of the shuttle and kill everyone in sight that he hadn’t noticed her land. She heard the Captain, coming down from the bridge and grumbling to himself about Readers and the people they drug home, but she knew she was safe from him for a moment.

                Not, however, from Jayne. The big man stood in her way, just at the base of the steps, arms crossed and mulish look on his face. They stared at each other a moment, frozen in place, before a nudge from behind on Zoe’s part forced River to move. She stepped aside, listening to the worry for the woman’s daughter and the fading hope that nothing had gone wrong while they were away. Jayne jerked his head and told the first mate that her girl was down in her bunk and the woman was off, gone in a blur of tan clothes and dark hair. Simon and Inara came next, each carrying an insulated crate, and River shuddered as they slipped past her and down the stairs to the main deck. She knew the infirmary needed restocking. It didn’t mean she had to like what they were carrying.

                “Might want to think girl, ‘fore you get a man all riled up and leave him in a strange place.” Jayne had waited till the others were out of earshot, although River could hear the Captain and Zoe filling each other in. She twitched and closed her mind off to them, focusing on the mobile mountain in front of her. He was angry, worried, and half a step from reverting back to the merc who’d happily dump her out the airlock if she did anything else to upset the crew. She sympathized. She’d been asleep most of the past few months, but they’d been hunting her. With his main job being the protection of this ship and those on he felt the pressure of needing to keep them safe. And here she’d come, making a spectacle of herself for the security feeds and dragging along a man who’d come close to killing most everyone on the ship at least once in the past two days.

He doubted her, doubted how stable she was, and worried that he’d have to do something about it. He didn’t want to. She knew it. He knew it. They’d come to an accord of sorts in the past few years. He would always bluster, but she’d learned to look past it to the mind of a man who didn’t want to see another home lost. He in turn, had come to understand that she functioned best when not being pushed, either with the mind or the voice. He was waiting now; to see which way she’d jump. To see which course of action he’d have to take. She caught resentment for the fact that Riddick was the one to keep up with her and relief that at least _someone_ could. Added to that was no small amount of fear of the knowledge that the pair of them together could wreak more havoc in a small enclosed space than one of his favored grenades.

But he understood too. He was more like Riddick than either of the men knew, and if they’d just get past the buckets of testosterone, they might actually get along. The instinct to hit first and ask questions later. Their initial reactions when she stepped out as an Apprentice Companion. Jayne still didn’t like it, but he’d never made a noise about it either. Not since the very first time he’d mocked her for crippling herself with veils and streamers when she needed to stay safe and dangerous. Ten stitches that had been, right across the temple, and he’d never dared question her clothing choices again. She had more weapons built into this costume than she did her normal clothes and there was nothing about it that hindered her movement in any way. She’d been planning to prove that to Riddick when she got back, but Jayne was right. She hadn’t been really thinking. Trying to distract herself really. When was she going to learn?

There was one significant way in which the gun hand differed from her match though, and she could feel him in her mind, realizing she was back on the ship and coming out of his version of mediation to listen for her with his ears. “He can hear you,” she said, stepping aside so Simon and Inara could come back for the next load. Footsteps and interest signaled the arrival of Zoe and the Captain Daddy and she glanced up at them before meeting those hard blue eyes again. “And she knows it was stupid. She-”River shrugged and trailed off. How could she explain, except to the one man who was linked to her? The rest didn’t even know the words of the language they spoke in their heads.

The other shuttle was opening, and Riddick appeared in the darkened hatch, his bulk filling the doorway. The Captain and Zoe had halted on the stairs leading to the bridge, watching the tableau before them and doing a horrible job of not giving anything away. Between the jaguar reaching through her for their scents and the talents of her own mind, they could hide nothing. Didn’t they realize that? Couldn’t they see that they’d never have another secret again if they didn’t put themselves back in the habit of boarding up their thoughts?

Zoe knew it, and just as abruptly as she realized the fact, she slammed up the walls. River was still catching anger and worry from her, but it came via Riddick as she let him move through her mind like a tornado, finding all the nooks and crannies where she’d been hiding from herself for the past few hours and dragging the bits of her out to stand, jangling in the breeze, under the tree. Behind her Simon and Inara were trying to get back out of the shuttle again, and Jayne was still glowering at her. He had taken one look at Riddick, still waiting on the other side of the bay, and the anger hovering under his surface had bloomed off of him like a full burn in atmo.

She laid a hand on his shoulder, tried to give him a smile, and stepped around his seething bulk. She knew they were watching her. She could feel the eyes, the judgments, the questions and the concern as she crossed the catwalk and climbed the steps. Worry rose paramount as Riddick blocked her way, looking down at her flat eyes unhindered by goggles and walling his mind and feelings away from her. This close she could smell the musk of his deepest arousal, coupled with a rage that simmered just under boiling. The jaguar was bypassing the man again, giving her warning, and she let her hand drop to its ears as she set her forehead to his broad chest. “So sorry,” she whispered.

He moved aside, still not reaching for her, and she felt the crew looking at each other and wondering. Simon was already prepping the infirmary in his mind, preparing for lots of bandaging and stitches. Jayne just hoped they’d keep whatever happened contained to the shuttle so he didn’t have to shoot anyone; Zoe thought on Sierra and heard Wash’s voice in her ears speaking on the dangers of the life they led. Kaylee was oblivious in the galley, thank goodness, working on decoys; and Mal was sending up a hidden prayer that she’d stay put until the latest shit storm had blown over. He was also praying he’d still have a pilot at the end of this, but his assessment of Riddick and his temper didn’t lead him to hope for much. Except that maybe if he tried to kill their ‘Tross, she’d kill him right back.

And then she was standing in the dark, the hatch had closed, and all that was left were two sets of heart beats and his breath in her ear. She knew that vanilla was rising in the air, and anger was still radiating from him like a small sun. She tried to find the tree in his mind, but he was hiding it from her. Like she’d hidden from him. A taste of her own medicine. Unbalanced, she swayed and lifted her hands to her face as one of his fingers caught the edge of a drape of gauze and he paced around her. He’d taken the goggles off, and silver eyes glared.

“I could strangle you with these,” he murmured, and she fought to keep from melting. “Wrap the body up with them too.” He caught at the veil that trailed down her back and yanked. The motion snapped her head back as the clips holding it to her hair lost their battle with the force pitted against them. She glared at him while he made another turn around her and wrapped the thin fabric around his hand.

And stopped when he felt blood run.

His shock gave her the opening she needed and River dropped, spun, caught him behind the knees, and kept on going. He tipped over with a bark of surprise, and she didn’t give him a chance to scramble for balance before sweeping an arm over his head, enveloping him in the excess fabric that hung from it. A grab and a twist with the other hand and the weakened seams popped. She yanked on the handful of gauze fisted at the base of his neck and he spun, reaching for her as he went. He caught the netting under the skirt, and it tore. But the mesh was made of strands of paper thin metal, harmless until someone did what he’d just tried, and he snarled in pain as his hand got sliced to ribbons. River ducked his other arm, yanked the last of her skirts off, and threw them in his face just as he managed to get the first blinding cocoon off his head. Leaping, she rode him down, knees around his ribs and a blade at his neck. He groped for her, caught her by the waist, and threw her off. River grunted as she came up against the bed, twisted, and wiggled under, privately blessing both Inara and the Captain for never getting around to storing anything under there.

Outside, Riddick came to his feet, breathing harsh as he threw the rags at the bed. He was still closing his mind off to her, and now that she had a second to think instead of simply move, she found herself looking blindly for the jaguar. It stared at her through a crack in the wall, but made no move to help. She’d gotten herself into this. She’d almost caused him to go mad. She could get them all out of it.

The girl shook, listening as he stalked towards the bed. The weapon shouted at her, telling her what she needed to do. But the river was churning, bringing her the memories of her crew from the past few hours. The things the Captain had said in the hold. What Jayne had said both on the bridge and later in the galley. Her promise of no sex for the next few days. Everything all piled on top of everything else, and she’d left him with nothing to do but stew in his own juices and let it drip through his brain. No wonder he’d locked himself in here. The footsteps had stopped, and she knew he was debating reaching down and dragging her out or just lifting the mattress and plucking her out. The weapon wanted to strike. The girl just wanted him to listen. The river spoke.

“She is afraid,” she wailed. People outside the shuttle paused, looked at each other. The man stilled, the jaguar pricked its ears. Footsteps again, and then a hand at her ankle, pulling carefully. She didn’t fight it, and as soon as she was clear of the bed she curled up in a ball, hands over her head and chest heaving. He still wouldn’t open up to her, but the tornado in her mind had stilled, leaving the girl and the weapon standing naked by the lonely stream bank. Clothing shifted, feet scraped over the carpet laid on the deck, and he knelt beside her. The loss of his touch was almost overwhelming, and she whimpered as she curled further in on herself.

“That she makes him not be himself. That things are happening to her body that she’s never needed to worry about before. That he is angry with her because she cannot sate him!” She was crying now, teeth clenched and breath hissing between them as she fought to get the words out.

His shock broke the barriers between them, and she scrambled through the flood of thoughts for the center, for the tree and the cave beyond. The jaguar followed, herding her into shelter and turning on the man when he tried to pin her down where he could yell at her. He was gathering her into his arms, making a small bundle of her as he picked her up and sat down on the bed. Neither spoke, warring in their minds instead. The man wanted her to come out. To elaborate. To help him understand. The weapon and the jaguar guarded the entrance of the cave while the waif wept inside for what she had wrought. Warm lips resting on her forehead contradicted the tension in the muscles around her, and she didn’t know if she should melt or try and break free.

It was the gurgling of the stream that broke the stalemate. Rising swiftly, breaking white over sudden rocks, she heard the voices of the crew rise in argument, both in their heads and in the cargo bay. Dark eyes met silver, and she scrambled free of his hold and launched herself at the hatch. She activated the locking sequence just as her Captain’s fist hit the door. “Go away,” she yelled before he could say anything. “Just please…go away.”

Anger and fear for her pummeled at her mind.

She groaned and clutched her head. “It’s getting very, very crowded in here. Just please leave them alone!”

Riddick hadn’t moved from the bed, but the low rumble in his chest and the fangs the jaguar had bared didn’t bode well for anyone at the moment. She leaned against the door and prayed that her family would listen, that he would hold back the bloodlust that was slowly rising in the air.

Finally Jayne spoke. “C’mon Mal. Leave ‘m be. Don’t sound like they’re killing each other.”

She blessed the man, and promised herself she’d never let him run out of spare guitar strings. Another moment, and the crew left. They were muttering to themselves about crazy killer women and men with scary eyes, but they left. She sighed in relief and looked over at Riddick.

He was gone. Only a rumpled spot on the covers to show where he’d been. She stretched to find him in her mind, but he’d closed himself off to her and masked his thoughts with irritation at her crew. Suddenly angry, wanting nothing more than to fix this and get on with figuring out how to stop it from ever happening again, River growled and stomped her foot as she reached for another knife. :: _Hwoon dahn_ ,:: she grumbled in her head. ::Quit showing off.::

It got a reaction. If she’d known which reaction she was aiming for in the first place, she might have called it more of a success. As it was, he landed in front of her on cat feet, grabbed for the weapon in her hand, and pinned her wrist up over her head. She had half a second to wonder how he’d gotten up on the ceiling before his lips crashed down onto hers and she was being lifted, melted, and absorbed. Musk and vanilla filled the air, and she almost couldn’t smell the old blood as the jaguar fed her the scents.

She wasn’t in the cave any more. He’d gotten her out somehow, and they were up against the tree, man and girl. Where the jaguar and the weapon-self had gone to she had no idea. Nor did she care at the moment. Reaching up, she let her fingers run over the soft skin at the back of his neck and braced herself against the door. He tried to follow her mouth as she pulled back, but she twisted to the side and buried her face in his shoulder. “Can’t,” she sobbed. “Can’t.”

He growled at her, confused and angry and still half mad from his encounter with the crew earlier. She set out for the stream, pulling him along behind, and sat herself right in the middle of it. “Please Riddick, she is so afraid. Please just listen!”

Rage at whatever was scaring her. Resignation at being thwarted. He sighed and wrapped one arm around her ribs and the other under her _pi gu_ and carried her back to the bed. She let him, and was content for a moment just to breathe. He still wasn’t letting her see much in the way of his thoughts, but she was well served for her folly and didn’t try to push any more for the moment. And then next. The next several minutes in fact, were spent in silence, as each absorbed the scent and feel of the other. Finally he spoke, and his voice was harsh and grating in her ear. “Cheap trick.”

She snorted. “Which one? She leaned back so he could see her face and the anguish she knew showed there. “The costume? Yes. It was mean and foolish. Locking you out of my mind?” She traced a finger up his jaw and he leaned into the touch. “She has been afraid of _herself_ this past day or so. No idea how you would react. Wished to have a better idea…” she trailed off and shook her head. “Needles may be the only way. Life aboard _Serenity_ can be too unpredictable for pills. And as much as she loves her _ge ge_ there is no ruttin way she is letting him insert things made by man in places never designed to take them.”

“River,” his voice was low. Controlled. She could feel the rage building again at the mention of needles, and he was trying to fit together the pieces of what she was muttering into a cohesive whole. He had it, he really did, but man and animal were both unwilling to approach the subject. Instead, they paced around it as if it may blow up in their faces. Which, if not dealt with, could very well happen.”

She sighed and tried a different tack, a different way to bring it up. “Sex and menses don’t mix well. Not in space. Extra water for laundry. Special ways of handling…” she shrugged. “Septic systems are finicky. Should not be plugged. If the couple is adventurous, not as easily hidden as residue of normal sex. Taboo is what it is.” She was cringing and she knew it, embarrassed beyond all imagination to be having this conversation.

Frustration and humor were warring for dominance in him, and she didn’t want to know which would win. All she knew for sure was that their comfortable easy companionship was changing. Nothing in what they felt for each other, she knew that for a certainty. But they would have to adapt the way they conducted their affairs if they were to stay aboard the _Serenity_. No more wandering the ship naked, no more sudden jumping of one another in the most bizarre of times or places. There were others around now, and Sierra; and she was so deathly afraid that by coming here she’d made him compromise his basic self. Ties and chains, but of a different sort. He’d never asked her to change for him. Had she forced him instead?

The bones in her ear were vibrating where the rumble in his chest shook from his skin and into hers. After a moment it turned to chuckles, and then outright laugher. She reared back to be sure he still at least _looked_ sane, even if he didn’t sound it, and he caught her face with his hands so she couldn’t get away. ::You think I care? About a few days? Fuck River!:: He kissed her gently, and she basked in the feeling of him once more speaking in her head, of having him carve out a place there that she didn’t know he’d left. ::What’s a few days anyways? I’ve managed longer.::

She resisted the urge to point out the fact that while he may have lasted longer with no sex before, he’d gotten very used to having his way with her at all hours, and she with him. Absence of a thing was sometimes easier than denial of what was right in front of you. ::In a few days though, a decision would have to be made. She will not choose on her own,:: she replied instead, and took everything about contraception and the possibilities of children that she and Inara and Simon had talked about in her old bunk and later when they were getting supplies and shoved at him. It was far, far easier than trying to put it into words, and she knew she positively reeked of burnt sugar over the apples and rain, old blood and cedar. Ruddick grunted in surprise and stared at her as the man and the jaguar sorted the memories out between them.

He’d let go of her chin, so she buried her face in his shoulder again and waited for the storm to break. Amazingly, it came as a cooling rain, and not the tempest she’d expected. The jaguar nudged her under the elbow while the man crouched to meet the eyes of the girl. “That’s what’s had you tied up in knots,” He murmured. “That’s what had you so afraid. That’s why you asked if I had kids.”

“Biological probability when two mutually compatible humanoids engage in coitus.” If she used enough big words, maybe she could forestall the mocking. “Onset of menses is a reminder. It is possible. If the two keep on as they have, it is very likely.”

He snorted and laced his fingers up through her hair. Apples and rain, remnants of cedar, charcoal and burnt sugar mixed in his nose and trickled over into her mind. Surprise was still very much evident in him, along with a sort of considering that tended to end with actions such as making the choice to bring a bleeding girl on a hike through monster infested darkness on the off chance he could get her through safely. Or a choice to give himself up and land his ass on a planet so hostile to life the very landscape restructured itself on a daily basis. Or even to listen to a crazy girl that had tried to kill him when she said she could guide him to freedom. The jaguar and the man were working on the puzzle as one, and she felt it like a snap in her head when they reached their conclusion, though she didn’t know what it was. He’d done all his thinking behind a hastily erected wall, and she’d decided to be content with the fact that he was holding her for the moment.

::Not now.::

She yanked back, hurt and angry. He blinked, and pulled her a little closer. ::I gotcha, I gotcha. Not what I meant.::

River frowned up at him. :Then what-?::

::Still got to find Kyra. No idea how long that will take.:: One big hand cupped the back of her head and the other her cheek. Silver eyes gleamed and there was nothing there of the rage that had filled them not ten minutes before. The man and the jaguar were crouched at the base of the tree, the weapon between them, trying to coax the girl from the river. ::Still got to see if this fucked up family of yours is worth putting up with.::

And there was the other issue. How much would he have to compromise himself, his core personality, to stay here with her? She bit her lip, but he caught the thought as it passed through her mind and shook his head. “Been around people before. Don’t you remember?” Visions of some of his teammates on Sigma 3, the brief almost-friendships with some of the other convicts he tried to help out of slam, the uneasy truce he’d had with the group on T-2. None of them truly qualified as family, but he’d managed to work with them. Some of them he hadn’t even been tempted to kill. “Think it was the anger, and the distance,” Riddick said as he pulled her a little closer. “Watched you get on that shuttle, mind all closed off. Pissed as fuck I couldn’t leave the ship and knowing it was the right choice. Then your Captain, your crew prodding at me. And you. Gone. Not sitting in the tree, muttering in my head. There but not there.” He leaned back and pulled the hand that had been buried in her hair out for her to see. How self-absorbed had she been not to notice the bandage?

::She is sorry,:: River whispered as she took his hand in her own and turned it over. ::She did not mean to-::

::Just as much my fault. Should have trusted you to know what you were doing. Should have let you have your space to figure things out instead of pushing.:: He laid a soft kiss on her lips. ::Doesn’t change my answer. Not now. Not yet. Can’t even say someday.:: He sighed and took his hand back so he could run it up her arm. “I’m not father material River. Never have been.”

The jaguar had managed to come up and get the girl’s dress between his teeth, and together with the man and the weapon they’d pulled her from the stream and back to the cave. She allowed herself to be led, dripping cool water that puddled, grew, and ran behind her feet as they guided her to the fire. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, and she muttered small nothings into his shoulder as she nestled herself a little closer. Lips brushed her ear, and she sighed in contentment. “One step at a time then.”

 

~HHYFN~

 

 **Author** **’s Note** : Soooo. This is more than just housekeeping, I promise. I’ve got to keep tension between these two somehow, and it’s more fun doing it this way than to just have him try and get used to the crew. After all, if it were going to be easy, it’d be boring.

A note, for those of you who may be men (or too young to know. I know you’re out there. I was reading this sort of fic LONG before I even knew the mechanics of sex. Or the body in general). Periods are a PITA. They screw with your brain and your hormones and your everything. If you belong to the camp of “No Sex While on the Bleed” and have a S.O., husband or whatever, it gets even more fun. My husband’s found me sitting on the kitchen floor, bawling about nothing and yelling at him for it. Poor man. So I’m pretty much setting these two up for a week or so of agony. I think.

And before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, periods, sex, issues as a couple; these are all the facts of life as an adult. River’s an adult and so is Riddick. These things need to be dealt with and one of my pet peeves in any fiction (published or fanfic or even movies) is a near total disregard for these facts. Part of what makes me giggle so much about the “Pitch Black” movie is the whole Jack bleeding thing. And Riddick being able to tell. Few movies, especially action ones, acknowledge the fact that women bleed. The near continuous sex scenes in some books make me wonder exactly when the woman’s cycle hits, or do they just plow right through and deal with the smell and the mess as it comes? Garg.

Anyways, now that I’ve written a miniature essay on the topic, down to the nuts and bolts. THEY DON’T BELONG TO ME!!! In any way, shape, and or form. If they did, I’d be rich. And probably friends with Summer Glau, Vin Diesel, and the whole cast. And also, after this chapter, never able to look any of them in the eye again.

 

Translations:

 

 _Hwoon Dahn:_ bastard

 _Pi gu:_ ass/butt

 

Cool water-calm, battle state

Sour fruit- drugs burning out of system

Citrus-fear/terror

Rain/apples- base scent

Charcoal-tipping off edge of sanity

Silk- joy, exaltation

Wet earth/peat- sadness

Warm vanilla-arousal

steel, the smell of a good blade freshly honed.-anger

Witchhazel-mindless killing, when she's a river of blades

Mint- anticipation

Simon's cooking-disgust

Malt-exhaustion

Bitter herb-hurt, emotional

Charcoal and fire-she is in the river, listening

Burnt sugar-embarrass

Ozone-despair

Sour apples-shock, surprise

Cedar-when she's playing at being companion. Perfume of apprentice

 

Forward/bow--Front

Aft-Rear/back

Port-Left as facing forward

Starboard-Right as facing forward

Head-Toilet/bathroom, etc

Galley-Kitchen

Hatch-Doorway

Bulkhead- Walls.

Slip/berth: Place to dock a boat, designated parking.

Hull-Outer shell of the boat/ship/whatever. Don’t breach this. **Fiery death!**

 


	8. Chapter 8

Ch. 25

 

  
_Sweet wild road ahead_  
_Sweet wild road ahead_  
_If I lied and said that all was well_  
_I might as well be dead_

                “The Devil’s Paintbrush Road”, The Wailin’ Jennys

 

 

The Doc had been very thorough and very professional when he checked Riddick over. Face a blank mask, he’d gotten the ex-con to take off his shirt and the harness holding his ulaks and gone over every inch of his torso. The old burn patterns had earned him an assessing look but seeing as there was nothing to be done about them, the Doc kept his mouth shut; which Riddick thought was uncommonly smart of the man. The gash down the arm was pronounced too far gone to end up as anything but a spectacular scar. The bite marks on his shoulders and arms were frowned at, and a glance thrown in River’s direction where she waited in the Common room. Riddick snorted and the Doc glared. “Reavers,” the big man said. The younger man twitched and fear bloomed around him, but his expression didn’t change otherwise. The hand got rebandaged, and he was told to try and be careful with it for a day or so. The twist of the lips and the frustration in the air told Riddick that the Doc wasn’t really expecting him to listen. That was good. Man was learning.

Finally, about the time he was starting to wonder if the process was being drug out on purpose, Simon wiped his hands clean of the last of the antiseptic gel he’d been putting on the cuts taken from the fucking net and stepped back. Out in the common area River stood from where she’d been curled up on the couch and glared at her brother. Riddick quirked an eyebrow at her. She stayed where she was, but pushed warnings and alarms his way. ::Please do not kill him,:: she muttered. She sounded like she wanted the honor instead.

“Have you ever had any STDs, infections? Anything of the sort.”

Riddick’s head jerked up and the rest of him followed, coming off his spot against the counter as if he’d be electrocuted. The Doc crossed his arms and set his jaw. Out in the common room, River groaned and dropped back into her seat. Jayne, just coming down the stairs from the cargo bay, stopped and stared.

“What the fuck sort of question is that!?” He was fairly proud of himself. He _wasn’t_ snapping this little fuck’s neck. He wasn’t even yelling all that loud. The man flinched, but the anger and determination in his scent and face didn’t change. “And its none of your business!”

That got a reaction. The soft pampered rich kid vanished and in his place was something else. He’d met a few before, in some of the worst places a person could imagine. A surgeon stood before him, titanium core and ready to do whatever needed to save a life. Or end it. Cold rage boiled off the man; and his voice was dead level as he did what very few men ever did and got right up in the face of murder. “ _Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiouh doh sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo!_ It _is_ my business; you pile of _shu ma nyaow_! Some things can lie dormant. Some could kill you eventually. And considering I have no idea _what_ variations of _what_ diseases have managed to mutate in your home systems, I don’t have a [_t_ _ā_ __ _m_ _ā_ __ _de_](http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=fucking) clue what to be looking for!”

Riddick blinked, River groaned in his head, and Jayne over from where he’d been watching the show to poke his head in and stare. “Damn Doc. Didn’t know you had it in ya.”

The growl that worked its way out of Simon’s throat wasn’t as intimidating as the one Riddick could manage, but it did the job. That and River coming over to pull Jayne away. “Leave them be ape man,” she muttered. “Bad enough already.”

Riddick almost laughed as the gun hand let himself be dragged out of the line of fire, muttering about pushy crazy people and this boat getting weirder and weirder every time they picked up someone new. He would have, if he weren’t still so close to snapping the Doc’s neck. It must be a family thing, because the man was just as good at provoking irrational and violent reactions as his sister, with none of the advantages she had for calming things down. “How the fuck would I know?” He said once he thought he had his temper under a tight enough rein. “Last decent infirmary I was in was fifteen years ago. Don’t remember half the shit I got up to then. Was more worried about the fucking acid burns!”

::Lies.::

:Shut up.::

::Make me.::

He glared out the window at her, where she was glowering at the laughing Jayne. Everyone had such a fucking great sense of humor on this boat. ::Don’t tempt me girl,:: he growled, shoving mental images her direction of the all the ways he could get her to quit talking.

She twitched, and the waif in the tree nearly fell out laughing, but didn’t react otherwise.

“Are you even listening to me?”

Riddick looked at the Doc. The other man’s skin was turning darker, and the rage hadn’t left. He shrugged. “Not really.”

“Of course you’re not!” Simon flung up his hands and stalked around the table to yank open a small fridge unit and pull out a vial. “Why would you? I’m only trying to make sure everyone’s healthy and in one piece.” He slammed the vial down and reached for a hypo. That brought Riddick up from where he’d gone back to leaning against the counter, senses on high alert. In his mind, River sighed. Simon was still ranting. “I’d like to do a blood draw, but considering circumstances, I’m not even sure that would work. But, if my sister catches something you picked up on who knows what God forsaken rock, I will, I swear-”

“Swear what Doc?” Riddick loomed behind him and made a grab for the vial he’d just filled the syringe from. “What will you do?”

“Broad spectrum antibiotics.” River had come back to the door while he wasn’t paying attention, and apples and rain mixed with steel and burnt sugar in the small room, overpowering the anger and frustration of the Doc. “Just in case.” Turning, she scowled at Jayne. “Go away please. Private talk.”

“Prob’ly shouldn’t be doing so much yell’n then Moonbrain. Whole ship can hear them.”

Feet on metal were proof enough of that. River growled, gave Jayne an extra shove, and shut the infirmary door before going to close the blinds. She was angry, a little fearful, and a lot frustrated. Riddick could feel her in his head, stomping around the base of the tree while the animal watched with interest. The man was otherwise occupied with the needle in her brother’s hand. “Think it’s a little late for that Doc. Whatever I got, I got.”

The man twitched. River groaned and aimed a kick at Riddick’s leg. “Fool,” she muttered. “Not for you.”

Riddick stilled. The Doc’s face was blank, but anger and worry were overriding the fear in the room. River was trying to make herself smaller, and she’d climbed back up the tree in his mind and wrapped herself around the animal. :River?::

She looked at him, eyes huge. He could hear the crew outside the room, and Jayne and the Captain were arguing about whether or not to try and get the Doc to open the door. ::She knows why it is needed. He is just trying to take care of her; only way he has left now. Making sure she’s as healthy as possible since she refuses to give up her match or quit placing herself in dangerous situations.:: She flinched, but held out her arm for her brother when he came around the table towards her with the hypo full of clear liquid. Riddick mirrored him, cupping her head and pulling it into his chest as she quivered slightly. Simon gave them an unreadable look, but gave her the shot and reached for another vial a fresh hypo that Riddick hadn’t seen him pull out. He growled before he knew what he was doing and Simon’s head jerked up.

River sighed. “Getting it all over with at once.” Dark eyes turned up to meet his through the goggles. ::No babies remember? Only practical way.:: She shuddered. ::Every six month now. Until we decide to stop.::

Riddick raised an eyebrow at her, and her brother was giving off at least ten kinds of disapproval, but the next shot went as quickly as the first, leaving River shaking and stinking of lemons and charcoal in his grasp. The Doc left them alone then, busying himself with putting away the vials and dismantling the hypo. River clung, and in his head he could feel her mutterings. The stream at the base of the tree had turned murky, and the man frowned at it. Now wasn’t that interesting?

“Spare clothes for you in the common room,” River said finally. ::Not that she doesn’t appreciate the bare skin.:: Riddick chuckled and she snorted into his chest as her fingers traced one of the scars on his ribs. ::But she doesn’t want to share and there will already be enough questions. Jayne saw you after all, even if Simon doesn’t blab.::

Riddick glanced over at the Doc, who looked like he was doing his best to ignore them, fingers pinched over the bridge of his nose. The man was managing to pull his emotions back in fairly well, and his breathing was starting to go back to normal. Riddick shook his head and looked down at his girl. ::Gonna be questions anyways. And where did you get clothes?::

She giggled, ignoring her brother when he spun around in surprise. “Think supplies for the infirmary were the only thing we went looking for?”

Simon shook his head as he went over to the door and unlocked it. The crew outside had mainly stopped arguing, and Riddick had the feeling they were planning an ambush instead. Was everyone on this fucking boat as nosey as a bunch of old women? River laughed and poked him in the side again, then slipped away to follow her brother. “She will get the change of clothes. Should stay here if he doesn’t want third degree.”

He ignored her of course. The whole fucking crew was sitting in the common room, staring at the infirmary like they expected it to explode or something. He leaned in the door, arms crossed over his chest, and watched their eyes widen. River gave the animal a shove in the shoulder and the man an elbow in the ribs and slipped past Kaylee to the bundle of cloth she’d left on one of the couches. Simon had pulled Inara aside, and they were whispering about the last shot and how the Doc wanted her to have a long heart to heart with River. Riddick toyed with the idea of letting them know he could hear them, but the advantage it gave him was too valuable to lose at the moment. He took the shirt River held out to him without looking at her, still eying the crew as they eyed him. A poke in the side brought him back to himself, and he looked down. She was glaring and shaking the other half of the pile of clothes at him. Pants, he guessed. ::No fucking way,:: he growled. ::Not right now. Your Captain’s about to open that big mouth of his.::

River growled and threw the pants at his face before stalking past him and back into the infirmary. He pushed the thought at her that for someone as afraid of needles and shots, she didn’t have as much trouble with the room as he’d expected. She ignored him, snatching up his harness and ulaks and shoving them at him before bulling into his side and pushing him out the door. He barked in surprise, caught the shock and wariness of the crew as it bloomed in the air, and growled. “What the fuck River?”

But she wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. Apparently all she’d wanted was him out of the way so she could stalk over to Jayne and glare at him, arms crossed. The man looked nervous, and he kept shooting glances in Riddick’s direction as the big ex-convict shrugged into the harness and sheathed the ulaks again. The rest of the crew were splitting their attention among the three, and nerves and heartbeats were rising.

“’Tross,” the Captain said carefully after a few moments. “Mind telling me why you’re lookin’ to be skinning Jayne here out after he did ya the favor of dumping all those _go se_ decoys?” She ignored him. Riddick went back to leaning in the door. He was just as interested in the answer as Mal was. “Better yet, want to tell me why the bridge won’t tell me where you’ve pointed us?”

“Sinhon,” she said shortly, not looking away from Jayne, who was starting to twitch and mutter. Heads came up around the common room, and Inara stepped forward with a very ungraceful jerk. River ignored them all. “Inara is due for her re-up and report. Better to do it early this year than almost be late like last year.” She shot the woman a wry look, and finally turned to Mal. “She knows what she is doing Captain.”

Riddick reached for her in his mind. She wasn’t blocking him out, but her focus on the crew was so complete that he wasn’t catching much from her. Her scent wasn’t helping much either, all steel and apprehension. Kyra’s still face floated to the surface of her thoughts, followed by determination, and he rumbled to himself as he went to stand behind River. ::You’re about to unleash hell aren’t you girl?::  


“An’ I believe ya,” Mal rubbed at his head with both hands. “Just wish you’d share a bit. Give us all a bit ‘o warnin’ as to what lit this fire under you all sudden like.”

“I think it’s the same as it has been since she woke up Cap’n.” Zoe’s face was stern, and she was eyeing River with a fair amount of uneasiness in her gaze. Her eyes flickered when Riddick shifted, and he caught disbelief, anger, and surprise as they swirled through the air, though he couldn’t quite tell who was putting out what.

River just looked mulish.

“River,” Simon’s voice was resigned. “I’m glad you didn’t kick me in the face and lock us all out of the bridge, but could you at least _warn_ us before you do stuff like this?”

“The Companion is still due at the Training House,” River repeated. “And we need to find Paul to find Kyra.”

That earned her a blank look from every person in the room. Jayne was the first to recover. “What I said earlier’s still true. Mal, you hired me to help keep this crew alive.” He was glaring up at the Captain now. “Real hard to do that we keep throw’n ourselves at suicidal situations. An’ that’s _exactly_ what this is.”

River had gone still, steel and charcoal and just a bit of witch-hazel rising in the air. In his head, Riddick stared at the weapon as she dropped from the tree and stalked out of his mind and back into her own home. Water boiled and hissed around her as she passed the invisible boundary between the two, and the girl leaned forward. “ _Not_ headed for Persephone. Know better than that. Won’t find what we need there anyways. Coffin gone, resurrection planned, Viking ship left to rot and be bait. But Paul can help the girl. He knows things. And Paul is on Sihnon!”

Voices rose in a babble around them as everyone tried to ask their question at the same time. River stood like a rock, face blank, steel and charcoal rising from her like smoke. Riddick stood behind her and watched the back and forth as he fought his own rising irritation. They weren’t cowards, not really. Fear was a perfectly normal reaction to anything like what he and River wanted to do. But it was the debate, the assumptions, the arguing like they had any sort of control over what was going to happen that was ticking him off. Up in her usual perch in the tree, the girl snorted and gave him a mental image of a flock of chickens squabbling over something. The weapon was pacing near the stream, and the man watched her with interest. Now what was she going to do?  
“ _Bi zuie_ ,” River’s voice cut above those of her crew, and she glared at the lot of them when they stopped to stare at her. “Finding Paul is not finding Kyra. He will help with that. If you want nothing more to do with this then fine! Drop us on Sinhon and Riddick and the girl will go after the adopted _mei_ on their own!”

“See Mal, exactly what I done told ya!” Jayne stood and glared down at the girl. “Suicide.”

In the corner, Kaylee was tucked under Simon’s arm. Mal, Inara, and Zoe were still on the stairs, but Sierra was perched on the first mate’s hip, thumb in her mouth and eyes huge. Riddick took a deep breath to analyze their scents, but his focus was on the pair in front of him. It was an odd dynamic, made odder by what River had told him of her history with the hired gun. That he wasn’t nearly as angry with her as his voice said was evident in body language and scent. It was more as if he was afraid _for_ her.

::Is. Saw her jump into a pit of Reavers to save them all. Saw her come out bloody but whole. Knows she can do what she plans. Believes.:: The girl in his head shrugged. ::Afraid he will follow her out of duty and loyalty, two things he swore long ago to have no part of ever again.::

Well, that put a new shine on things

Footsteps on thin metal told him that Zoe was coming down the stairs, and the leather and sugar of her scent were mixed with lemons and no small amount of understanding. This woman was a worse puzzle than River had ever been. The girl laughed silently at him and turned to look at the first mate. “River,” she said. “I know you feel you got to do this. But think.” She held up a hand to cut the girl off as she opened her mouth. “You couldn’t help what they put in your head. What those ruttin’ _hwoon dahns_ did to you. Miranda…” she trailed off and sighed. “The broadwave was the right thing to do. But it cost us Book, girl. It cost me my husband.”

River stiffened, and around the room anguish flooded the air. The Captain’s jaw was set, and tears pooled in Kaylee’s eyes. Riddick glanced around, but none of them seemed likely to attack at the moment. Zoe was stone faced, but he could hear her heart rate rising, and the breath in her throat was coming in little hitching gasps. He tilted his head and watched her as she gathered herself and straightened a little before speaking again. This was soldier, a warrior, in the purest sense of the word, and he’d met very few who lived up to the name.

::River,:: he muttered to the girl. ::Don’t push this too far.::

Wordless acknowledgement was her only reply. She was sifting through Zoe’s mind, and he caught glimpses of a man with light hair and gaudy shirts, all in colors he hadn’t seen in years. They moved too fast for him to piece any sort of story together, but one image kept cropping up. The man, pinned to his chair in the bridge by a spear so large it was almost a small tree. Sorrow and anger surrounded them, and a cold willingness to follow that man right into the grave.

He blinked, and was back in the common room, River in front of him and her arms wrapped around Zoe. She was muttering under her breath as the woman clung to the girl; and the crew around them was shifting uncomfortably. Jayne had backed off to give them space, and Sierra was propped on his hip with her face buried in the man’s shoulder. Simon was holding Kaylee tighter and Mal shifted uneasily from foot to foot on the stairs, hand laced with Inara’s

“Who will we lose this time,” Zoe’s voice was hoarse when she straightened and blinked a little faster than normal. “River, we understand what you’re trying to do, but who can stand against the Alliance? Armies couldn’t.” Her voice was hard, and Riddick glanced up at the Captain to meet steely eyes and a squared jaw. “What can _we_ do?”

“Not Alliance,” River whispered, and reached over to touch Jayne on the chest. Riddick frowned, was given an image of the man with a large cut where the girl had her hand, and summarily ignored. The gun hand himself twitched and nearly dropped the little girl he was holding. River sighed. “Blue Sun. Ran the Academy. Facilities all over the ‘Verse. She doesn’t-” River stopped and looked at Riddick. The charcoal and witch-hazel were mostly gone, the steel fainter, and wet earth seeped around the mix like slow lava. He raised an eyebrow and waited, projecting as much patience as he could. A brief smile tugged at her mouth before she turned back around. “She doesn’t know where they have taken her. But they have baited their trap on Persephone. Hope to catch the girl. Hope to catch the man she was seen with. Beyond that,” she shrugged. “The river flows, meanders, but the specific cannot be found in the general and they might not even know what they have. Must get to them before they realize. Need Paul for that.”

::And why should he help us,:: he asked as he stepped up behind her and scowled down at her. This plan was full of assumptions and hopes.

River leaned back into him and frowned up at him. Around them, the crew tensed. Riddick had a brief moment to think that they should probably have explained this aspect of the bond a bit so they wouldn’t be on the receiving end of so much suspicion before River muttered ::He owes her. Will always owe her.::

Confusion reigned for a moment as he sorted out what she’d said. She hadn’t given him any images, or feelings, or even scents to help. Just the words and vague sense of resignation and dread. Then the pieces fell together. “Fuck,” he breathed, forgetting to keep it just to them. River groaned as the crew went on high alert.

::Thank you. Now there will be _more_ yelling.:: She shoved at the man and aimed a swat at the animal. ::Wanted to wait to explain.::

“River,” Simon was giving off concern and anger as he stepped forward. “River, what’s wrong?”

The girl turned to give Riddick the _look_. “Riddick has a big mouth.”

Wry chuckles greeted that statement, and the man in question raised an eyebrow at all and sundry. He was mildly surprised when Jayne shook his head and clapped him on the shoulder. “’Bout time someone kept her off balance.”

Riddick blinked, but the other man had gone serious again. He was in the middle of opening his mouth when Mal came down the last few steps into the room, trailing a very worried Inara behind him. The two men exchanged a look, and Jayne stepped back, muttering about ruttin’ Readers and the crazy shit they got themselves into to. Sierra giggled and poked him, telling him not to used bad words, but the man just grabbed the prodding finger and glared her into submission. Riddick tore himself away from the puzzle that was Jayne to meet the eyes of the Captain.

The man opened his mouth, shut it, ran his free hand through his hair, and looked down at River. “I ask who this Paul is, you ain’t gonna answer, are ya ‘Tross?”

She shook her head, jaw set, and Riddick would have laughed at the expression on her face if she hadn’t been shoving all sorts of images in his direction of how she planned exact her revenge on him over the next few days. The animal thought it may be interesting. The man warned her that if she followed through on those threats, she’d come to regret it. This was war now, to see who could hold out the longest. And he didn’t like to lose.

Oblivious to the argument going on between his Reader and her murderer, Mal sighed and shook his head. “We get to Sihnon, get Inara settled at the Training House, and I come with you to find this Paul. If,” he raised a finger and shook it in the girl’s face. “If I don’t like what I see, we turn right around and beat tracks, you got me girl? Not putting this crew in any more danger than I have to.”

River nodded, but the steel was back in both scent and voice. “You may beat tracks Captain Daddy. The girl and her match will be staying to find Kyra.” In Riddick’s head, she leaned against the man and laid a hand on the jaguar’s shoulders. ::This will be bloody.::

He didn’t doubt her.

 

 

**Author** **’s Note** : Sooo…getting back to Kyra now. I hadn’t forgotten really. But there’s character development that can be done in the meantime. And war has been declared. Won’t this be fun? As for the medical stuff, I don’t know lots, but I do know some things. Like the fact that no Doctor worth their salt is going to ignore the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases or blood borne pathogens mucking up the works. I’m playing around with the meds though, assuming that 500 odd years in the future they’ll have something that could knock most of the bacterial based stuff out before it really takes root. And the six month birth control shot is just an arbitrary number I plucked out of thin air. Apologies for anyone in the medical community. Research on this stuff at 5 in the morning makes me all fuzzy.

They are, as always, not mine. So sorry. Wish they were.

 

Translations:

_Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiouh doh sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo:_ Everything in space is stuffed up my ass.

shu ma nyaow: Stinking horse piss                                                            

_tāmāde:_ Mother fucker

_go se_ : Shit

_hwoon dahn_ : Bastard

 

Cool water-calm, battle state

Sour fruit- drugs burning out of system

Citrus-fear/terror

Rain/apples- base scent

Charcoal-tipping off edge of sanity

Silk- joy, exaltation

Wet earth/peat- sadness

Warm vanilla-arousal

steel, the smell of a good blade freshly honed.-anger

Witchhazel-mindless killing, when she's a river of blades

Mint- anticipation

Simon's cooking-disgust

Malt-exhaustion

Bitter herb-hurt, emotional

Charcoal and fire-she is in the river, listening

Burnt sugar-embarrass

Ozone-despair

Sour apples-shock, surprise

Cedar-when she's playing at being companion. Perfume of apprentice

 

Forward/bow--Front

Aft-Rear/back

Port-Left as facing forward

Starboard-Right as facing forward

Head-Toilet/bathroom, etc

Galley-Kitchen

Hatch-Doorway

Bulkhead- Walls.

Slip/berth: Place to dock a boat, designated parking.

Hull-Outer shell of the boat/ship/whatever. Don’t breach this. **Fiery death!**

 


	9. Chapter 9

Ch. 26

 

   
_I tried to walk together_  
_But the night was growing dark_  
_Thought you were beside me_  
_But I reached and you were gone_  
_Sometimes I hear you calling_  
_From some lost and distant shore_  
_I hear you crying softly for the way it was before_  
“Hymn for the Missing”, Red

 

It was a six day trip to Sihnon. Six days of being closed in a ship with a pack of people whose newest source of entertainment seemed to be seeing just how far they could push him till he found the edge. When that time came he had one of two options. Snap and kill them all, even the child; or go find River and let her know just how close he was to letting the animal free if she couldn’t get them to leave him alone for five minutes together. He’d told them as much as he was willing about himself, and while the Captain and the first mate seemed to understand the danger of stepping in the bear trap that was his temper, the rest were so fucking blind that he wondered how they’d managed to live as long as they had.

Things came to a head fairly quickly. He was woken from uneasy sleep about thirty hours in by the sound of a door sliding open and small bare feet on first metal, then carpet. He stilled, reaching for River in his mind, but she’d curled up on the couch after torturing him the night before. Her brother still wouldn’t let her dance, but she had stretched out on the floor of the shuttle, stark naked, and he’d finally told her that she’d better not think about crawling into the bed with him unless she wanted a very forceful demonstration of just how _not_ happy he was becoming about their current situation. She’d been right. It was easier to ignore his dick when he didn’t have breasts and ass and a general expanse of untouchable skin being waved under his nose like bait.

She’d chucked one of the pillows at his head and wrapped herself up in all the blankets on the fucking bed, leaving him naked, aroused, and completely exposed as he tried to clear the scent of vanilla from his nose. The shuttle was colder than the _Hound_ had been, but pride dictated the terms of this little. Once she was done bleeding though, they’d better be coming with grenades and assault rifles and possibly even knockout gas. It would take nothing less than a fully armed strike force to pry him out of this shuttle and away from her.

Yanking his brain back to the present he found River’s mind, just now stirring as the noises he was picking up transmitted themselves to her brain. A hushed giggle told him exactly who had snuck aboard, and he wondered at the stupidity of neither of them having made sure the door was locked before they’d gone to sleep.

::Did. She knows how to short circuit.:: River’s voice was muzzy, not quite conscious enough to show any emotion. He on the other hand, was fully awake. He watched through slitted eyes as Sierra tiptoed towards the bed, and then launched herself at side of the mattress that River would have been sleeping on if she’d not put on her little display that evening. He took the opportunity of her distraction to drop off the other side and lunge for the couch, ripping half the blankets off a protesting River and dumping them over the child as she realized her quarry was not where she expected it to be.

::Fucking done with this girl,:: he growled. :: I get it. They want to know who they’ve got on board. But there is a line and she just crossed it. Honeymoon’s over, right now.::

Sierra was squawking in indignation and trying to dig herself out of the pile of fabric as he scowled down at her. River grumbled and cursed, out loud and in his head, but didn’t complain when he gave her a shove towards the kid while he dug a pair of pants out of pile on top of the dresser. He hadn’t gotten them put away yet. It spoke of a finality that he still wasn’t sure he wanted to face. River hadn’t commented on it. Her stuff was still sitting in the baskets after all.

::Forgot,:: River told him and took up her perch in the tree. The stream burbled at its base, and the weapon knelt next to it, one hand just barely touching the surface. The man eyed her, but things seemed safe enough. ::Was trying to teach her stealth when the girl was taken. Taught her to short the locks in case anything happened and she needed to escape.:: She yanked the last of the blankets off the little girl and glared down at her, and Riddick was suddenly very aware of the fact that his woman was as naked as the day she was born. Very aware.

She laughed inside his head and he could feel hands through soft fur. The man frowned; the animal opened its mouth and bared its fangs. Turning, he snatched the first thing he found off the top of her basket of clothes and shoved it at her while he went to pick up Sierra by the back of her sleepshirt. The little girl struggled and swatted at his hands, but he was a bit beyond caring at this point. It was dark, and he’d left his goggles on a shelf over his head. He knew it wouldn’t have any impact, but he growled and glared at her anyways. “You are asking to get killed kid, you know that?”

“Want River. Needs to fix mamma!”

Eyebrow raised, he looked over at the Reader. She was slipping a dress over her head, and he stepped firmly on his reaction all that white skin disappearing under dark fabric. In their minds, he sent her questions, and she replied with frustration and resignation. Groaning internally, he shook his head and looked back at the little girl, now standing on the bed with her arms crossed and a fair imitation of a River glare painted on her face.

The owner of the original version slipped up next to him, and he drew in a deep breath of apples and rain, a faint bit of steel, and left over vanilla. She was starting to permeate this little ship already, and given enough time he’d have to track her through the main vessel by heartbeat and breath as he did the others. But that was neither here nor there for the moment. He glanced down to meet her dark eyes and shook his head. “Gotta stop River. Wouldn’t mind if they didn’t keep poking at things. Keep on like this though, something new’s gonna happen.” He didn’t have to tell her what it would be.

She leaned into his side, the pain in her mind reflected in the wet earth and bitter herbs that drifted around her. He didn’t want to take her away from her family, as annoying as they may be. There might actually be hope of getting along with them at some point. If they’d just fucking leave him alone and let him get his bearings. Let him do what he always did. Watch and examine, all from a distance. Only once he had the lay of the land would he make his assessment and decision.

But no. What he didn’t hear in whispers he got in direct looks. The curiosity that swam through the air wherever he went on this boat was enough to drown him. They’d forgotten to be afraid, to be wary. Maybe it was time to remind them that animals had their limits and they didn’t take teasing well.

River had followed his train of thought, a silent presence in his head as he came to his decision. There was still sadness coming off her, but the joy underneath was reflected not only in hints of silk but in the smile on her face as she leaned more heavily into his side. It was too dark for the kid in front of them to see, but he could. He gave her a one armed squeeze around the shoulders before turning his attention back to the little girl. She was still glaring, but her face was turning hesitant. She wasn’t getting the reaction she’d been expecting.

Huge eyes turned towards River, but the girl at his side had her arms crossed and was glaring right back. “Manners,” she snapped, and he could almost believe she was as angry as she sounded. “It is time you learned them.”

He took his cue from the mental nudge she gave him and grabbed the little girl, tossing her over his shoulder relatively gently, but quickly enough to surprise her. And then they were off. Little feet kicked near his face and he trapped them in one hand. Smaller fists flailed at his shoulders and head, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. It was the shouts of protest in his ear that were really starting to tick him off though. Out the shuttle he went, across the catwalk and up the other side to the stairs that led to the bridge where River told him Zoe would be.

Riddick moved on cat feet, angry and frustrated and asking himself how he was going to do this if what he had planned didn’t work. Wordless reassurance flowed from River, and the stream burbled and ran past its banks to cover the ankles of the man. She would manage, if they had to leave. She was anchored to him by blood and bonds that could never, should never, be broken. It calmed something in him, and the animal stopped its pacing. Now if only he could hook himself into this crew without declawing himself.

He could hear people stirring as Sierra made her opinion of her treatment known to the big empty cargo bay. Zoe came to meet him at the head of the stairs, eyes wet and sorrow and grief pouring off of her like a tidal wave. Her jaw was set though, and something in her face told him that this was another person who’d found their breaking point. She just hadn’t clawed her way back yet.

::Been sitting in the bridge. Mourning,:: River whispered quietly. He could hear footsteps on metal, probably the mechanic’s, and wondered for a moment what so many people were doing up in the middle of the night cycle. River didn’t have an answer for him. After all, he’d just managed to wake everyone else up too.

He stood there with a yelling little girl over one shoulder and River a warm presence at his back; staring at Zoe with his ungoggled eyes as he listened to the rest of the crew opened the hatches to their bunks and come looking for the source of the noise. When he figured he had everyone he was going to get, he flipped Sierra over and set her down. She made a lunge for her mother, but he’d kept hold of her arm and hauled her back as gently as he could. Zoe’s face was turning stonier by the second, and she was fingering her short barreled shotgun where it was still strapped to her hip.

“She nearly got killed, sneaking onto the shuttle,” he rumbled. “If I hadn’t heard her come in, if it had been me lying where she jumped, you wouldn’t have a daughter right now.”

Zoe blinked, and there were assorted mutters of protest from those behind her, but he ignored them in favor of pulling the little girl back against him as she made another lunge forward. “You people got no sense. I’m a killer. For survival, for fun sometimes. Coulda snapped her neck. Crushed her throat. Broken her ribs and punctured lungs. Alla you keep poking at me like you have been and you’ll see exactly why they tried to lock me up. And exactly how I manage to stay free.”

He picked Sierra up, braced a foot again the railing, and laid her out over his knee. Two firm swats to her rear and a new chorus of howling from her and he shoved her towards her mother. The woman caught her by the shoulder, and he couldn’t pin down a read on her scent. The others were giving off shock and anger, but at least none of them had pulled a gun and shot him yet. It was too early to be dealing with bullet holes.

River stepped aside for him when he turned around to head back to the shuttle, and amusement mixed with sorrow rippled through his head from her as she dropped out of his tree and headed for the invisible boundary between them. He cupped one broad hand around her head, dropped a kiss on her forehead, tried to ignore the vanilla in the air, and kept on going. Maybe she could make them understand.

 

~HHYFN~

 

River waited until she heard the shuttle doors slide shut. He was leaving her in peace, not pushing for her to let him see what would come next, thinking only of getting the bed put back together and going back to sleep. It was an admirable cover for the rest of the thoughts she knew simmered beneath the surface, and she pulled her attention away from his mind to leave him to his musings. After all, if they couldn’t have some sort of privacy sometimes, they would both go mad in time. And that would end bloody for everyone. They had the bond after all, and it was enough to link them even without her perched in the jaguar’s tree or the man sitting by a well and drawing buckets of water up to the edge.

She focused instead on her crew, her family, as their collective mind processed what had just happened. Zoe recovered first, taking refuge in her duties as mother and crouching to face her daughter. “Sierra, you know better.” Her voice was not the voice of Zoe Washburn, mother and first mate. This was the Corporal, hard and afraid that her child would be taken from her. River touched the woman’s thoughts with a finger, breaking the surface tension and shaking a drop from her hand before moving on to the rest.

Jayne was impressed in spite of himself while at the same time trying to figure all the ways this could go bad and how many weapons he should have strapped on his person while the crazy murderer was on board. River shook her head and moved on. Inara was relieved at the Riddick’s restraint, wary of the promised violence, but hopeful that River herself could keep him in check. The girl didn’t have the heart to correct her friend. First to help with dreams she didn’t understand and feelings in her body that Kaylee just laughed at and Zoe was unapproachable on, she didn’t want to scare the woman at this moment. Hopefully, she wouldn’t ever have to show her what true fear looked like.

Kaylee though, she was afraid. She was happy for River, happy she’d found a big man who seemed as like her as a matched team in harness, but she didn’t have a truly violent bone in her body. And while she’d learned to accept River’s little quirks on that score, this man was an entirely different story. It made the girl sad, because she knew that it was partly her fault that Riddick avoided the chipper mechanic. Maybe, just maybe, if she could keep her family off his back, he’d warm up to her a bit. Maybe.

Hard blue eyes met hers, and River sighed as the Captain directed all his thoughts and worries her way. What had she brought back, he wondered. What sort of man had she hooked herself to and had she, by extension, set her whole crew up to be killed?

River growled and stomped her foot. “She has. If the family can’t learn to accept him, it is very likely that all will die.” They all looked blank, the Captain only slightly less than the rest. “They thought he was tamed. Thought that because he and the girl claim each other as match that the River will soften the killer.” She crossed her arms and glared at the Captain Daddy.

He was living up to the name, mind all sorts of stubborn and overprotective; and she wished she could reach out and dump what she knew into his mind the way she could with Riddick. That though, the knowledge that someone could see inside her deepest self and accept her as she was; it was far more valuable than any gift anyone had ever given her. She felt warm fur as the jaguar rubbed its jaw along her hand in acknowledgement before leaving her to her thoughts again.

“Leave. Him. Be.” She ground out finally. “Let him do what he does. Observe, analyze, evaluate. _D_[ _ú_ _du_ _à_ _n_ _zhu_ _ā_ _n_ _x_ _í_ _ng_](http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=alone). Push him and he will leave rather than kill those the girl loves most. And she will go with him.” It was all that really needed to be said. Elaboration would get her nowhere, whereas simplicity was oftentimes the most cutting truth.

And she’d taken pains to keep it simple. She wanted to rant about jaguars being caged and teased, about separating halves of a whole and neither being able to function without the other. She’d wanted to fly at their faces and show them just how much damage was possible, and then call Riddick from the shuttle to prove just how much more mayhem his bigger frame and larger body mass could accomplish. The weapon was starting to merge with the girl, blades rising and falling from the surface of her skin in time with each breath. She separated them with a wrench that jerked through her whole body and left her gasping and clinging to the railings of the catwalk.

Worry flooded over her, everyone wondering what was wrong, what was happening. Simon’s mind pushed to the fore; a roil of flashbacks of other episodes she’d had while under his care and the underlying fear that if he suggested a smoother or anything else she’d be up and gone before any of them could blink. The Captain had been right. She’d asked him not to be himself, not be a doctor. But as long as he kept his thoughts and worries locked behind his lips as he had so often since she’d run and come back the first time, she could live with it. The words and deeds would be the stones that started the avalanche.

A small hand slipped into hers as she swayed in place, and River looked down into Sierra’s frightened eyes. She tried to dredge up a smile for the girl, but it wasn’t working very well. In her head Riddick was becoming aware of her agitation, and the man and the jaguar had come to stand at the boundary between their minds. She took comfort from their presence, and placed a hand into the watery wall between them. It was enough to steady her, the calm order of his thoughts, even when he was worried about her and whether she would be able to handle her crew. She had to, she knew it. If she didn’t, if she let him come out here and lend his support again, she wouldn’t be his equal. She’d be hiding behind him and not standing on her own two feet. Amusement washed over her at that, and she wasn’t sure if it came from him or from herself. The man had reached up to lace his fingers with hers through the barrier, and she let him pass her strength enough to regain her balance and meet the eyes of the crew.

“ _J_ _ì_ _zhu_ ,” she told them, walling off the rest of their thoughts and emotions as best she could. “Remember that he has never been tamed and that she will not ask it of him.”

Point made, she spun on her heel and stalked off down the catwalk. She could feel their eyes on her back, but their eyes had always been at her back, and she focused on what was in front of her instead. Riddick, lying on the remade bed, naked and smirking. He didn’t plan to let her have the covers this time, and she grumbled to herself. Hopefully he hadn’t taken all of the pillows either. On entry to the shuttle she stopped and surveyed the damage. He’d left just enough light for her to see, and lounged back against a pile of pillows stacked against the headboard wearing only a grin.

That part she’d been expecting.

What he’d managed to hide from her was the fact that he’d dug every piece of underwear she owned out of the baskets and cut them open at the seams, leaving the pieces in a pile on the floor. One bra lay on the couch, a frilly lacey thing that Kaylee had gotten her sometime in the past few years, and she glared at it. Black and crimson, she knew he could tell what color it was even with his grayscale vision. She locked the door, stomped over, picked it up, and found the matching thong tucked underneath.

He was rumbling out a laugh as she stood and fumed, and she bulled her way into his mind to give him a piece of hers. The man caught her, the jaguar sat on her, and the weapon didn’t put up much of a struggle. Strength and comfort and the familiarity of his need for games and mental one-upmanship built around her, walling her around with the essence of his self, and she basked in the glow of it and decided to forgive him. Just a little.

After all, there were still corsets with metal stays to be considered, and Inara was always willing to lend her clothes.

 

                **Author** **’s Note:** So. A little shorter than usual. But I felt that this was a good place to stop. You’ll see in the next chapter why I did this. I felt it was about time for Riddick to show his teeth a little here. They saw him fresh awake and pissed, and I think they might have thought that it was just because of how he came aboard. Now they’re starting to realize that he never sits too far away from the possibility of random acts of violence. Oh joy huh?

Thank you everyone who's left comments and kudos and loves of all sorts. I do have more to post. But the night is late and sleep calls. More soon! (I'm setting an alarm so it's not as long as it has been previously)

 

 

Translastions:

_D_[ _ú_ _du_ _à_ _n_ _zhu_ _ā_ _n_ _x_ _í_ _ng_](http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=alone)-to decide and act alone (idiom)

_J_ _ì_ _zhu-_ to remember **/** to bear in mind **/** to learn by heart

 

Cool water-calm, battle state

Sour fruit- drugs burning out of system

Citrus-fear/terror

Rain/apples- base scent

Charcoal-tipping off edge of sanity

Silk- joy, exaltation

Wet earth/peat- sadness

Warm vanilla-arousal

steel, the smell of a good blade freshly honed.-anger

Witchhazel-mindless killing, when she's a river of blades

Mint- anticipation

Simon's cooking-disgust

Malt-exhaustion

Bitter herb-hurt, emotional

Charcoal and fire-she is in the river, listening

Burnt sugar-embarrass

Ozone-despair

Sour apples-shock, surprise

Cedar-when she's playing at being companion. Perfume of apprentice

 

Forward/bow--Front

Aft-Rear/back

Port-Left as facing forward

Starboard-Right as facing forward

Head-Toilet/bathroom, etc

Galley-Kitchen

Hatch-Doorway

Bulkhead- Walls.

Slip/berth: Place to dock a boat, designated parking.

Hull-Outer shell of the boat/ship/whatever. Don’t breach this. **Fiery death!**

 

 


End file.
